Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
1889, French, literally "deceives the eye," from tromper "to deceive," a verb of uncertain origin and the subject of many theories (see trump (v.2)).
Wiktionary
n. 1 (context uncountable English) A genre of still life painting that exploits human vision to create the illusion that the subject of the painting is real. 2 (context countable English) A painting of this kind.
n. (alternative spelling of trompe l'oeil trompe l’oeil English)
WordNet
n. a painting rendered in such great detail as to deceive the viewer concerning its reality
Usage examples of "trompe l'oeil".
And now, as she gazed at the trompe l'oeil she'd created on the wall, she knew she shouldn't have tried to work at all, for the scene depicted beyond the faux French doors no longer seemed quite as real as it had this morning.
Maxine led the way through the turret, with its grandiose spiral staircase and its trompe l'oeil ceiling, into the house.
Dylan had seen masterpieces of trompe l'oeil in which artists, relying on nothing more than paint and their talent, had created illusions of space and depth that completely deceived the eye.
The spacious canopy was divided into sections by simulated paint and plaster architecture that merged almost imperceptibly onto a colossal trompe l'oeil portrait of an unbounded firmament, viewed from below.
The trompe l'oeil was enough to makedizzy, and so he quickly looked down.
The trompe l'oeil was enough to make him dizzy, and so he quickly looked down.
In fact, once they're close up, the door looks painted on, a trompe l'oeil.
Art and chemistry had come to the rescue: The denuded earth had been preseved under an immense sheath of pinkish brown fibreglass - the kind of trompe l'oeil topography used on movie sets, complete with moulded furrows and simulated scrub.