Glossary

Callen, Anthea

Save Cite Share

Free

Glossary

Anthea Callen

The Art of Impressionism: Painting Technique and the Making of Modernity

Glossary

Author

Anthea Callen

PublisherYale University Press

https://doi.org/10.37862/aaeportal.00125.016

Stable URL: https://aaeportal.com/?id=-16652

Glossary

academy board Name used in England for Carton or mill board sold by the colourman’s trade ready-primed for oil sketching or painting (see Carton Toile and chapter 2).

additive Substance other than oil or pigment added to the paint mixture during manufacture, not necessarily harmful in effect; certain additives are important stabilisers in oil paint – for example, refined beeswax, which minimises the separation of oil and coloured Pigment (cf. Adulterant; Extender).

adulterant Substance added to the paint mixture during manufacture that has harmful effects, such as reducing its colour purity, saturation Tinting or Hiding Power, stability or colour permanence.

aerial perspective See Perspective.

alla prima Original Italian term for an oil painting method in which the final effects are achieved in the first application of paint; the painting is by implication completed in a single sitting, or at least while the paint remains wet and malleable. The alla prima ‘effect’ in oil sketches or studies was greatly sought after in the nineteenth century, but was rarely the product of a true single session. The French term is au premier coup (‘at the first go’); Anglo-American usage also employs the term ‘direct’ painting.

ambient light Indirect light, refracted or scattered off light-reflective surfaces, producing in nature an effect of flooding atmospheric light, as opposed to direct light from one source, such as the sun.

attached, or self-shadow Shadow on those parts of an object obscured from a direct light source (see Cast, or Projected Shadow).

au premier coup French term for Alla Prima.

binder See Medium.

bladder Traditional container for ready-prepared artists’ paints, made from pigs’ bladders; superseded from the 1830s and 1840s by syringes and then by collapsible tin tubes (see chapter 7).

block-in See Ébauche.

boiled oil Linseed oil heated to thicken it, sometimes with the addition of a siccative; essentially a house-painters’ medium rather for fine art use, it tends to yellow rapidly (see also Huile Grasse, Drying Oil, Stand Oil).

brushwork Manipulation of wet paint of sufficient viscosity in a manner designed to leave the marks of the brush visible (see especially chapter 10).

canvas Woven fabric support for painting, especially but not exclusively in oils; fabric fibres include hemp (jute) and cotton but, before 1900, linen (flax) was the most common. A range of different weaves has been identified (see chapters 2 and 3).

carton Manufactured card or millboard, a strong, flexible, compressed pasteboard made from cheap fibres (e.g. rope or yarn) and sold as a portable support for oil studies and outdoor sketching from at least the late eighteenth century (see Academy Board, Canvas, Carton Toile, Support and chapter 2).

carton toile, canvas board Carton base with a thin Canvas fabric glued over it and then prepared with a layer of Priming for Oil Painting (see Academy Board, Carton, Support, and chapter 2).

casein Milk-protein-based glue, or painting Medium made by heating skimmed milk. In painting it gives a matt finish.

cast, or projected, shadow Shadow cast or projected on to surrounding surfaces by an object blocking the light from a direct light source (e.g. lamp or sunlight) (see Attached, or Self-Shadow, and chapter 6).

clair-obscur From the Italian Renaissance term chiaroscuro (light and shade), meaning the conventional rendering of balanced light and dark areas in painting, with forms modelled through graduated half-tones (Demi-Teintes) (see chapter 6).

colour Optical/perceptual effect of certain wavelengths of light; a pigment that absorbs, for example, all the wavelengths of light except the brilliant orange-reds, reflects these latter back to the eye and is therefore perceived by the brain as ‘vermilion red’. White light contains all the colour wavelengths, which, when separated, form the rainbow spectrum of red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, violet – the Spectral Colours. For artistic purposes, Primary Colours (which combine subtractively) are red, yellow and blue. These combine to form the Secondary Colours orange, green and violet (see Complementary Colours, Hue, Simultaneous Contrast, and chapters 9 and 11). Colour also refers to coloured paints.

complementary colours In painting, opposites on a colour circle based on Pigment primary and secondary colours (see Colour). Complementary colour contrast follows the law that two such opposing colours placed side by side will appear as dissimilar as possible, both in colour and tone. Since strong colour tends to irradiate its surroundings with its own complementary, juxtaposed complementary colours enhance each other – i.e. with the red–green pair, the red appears redder and the green greener (see also Simultaneous Contrast, Hue).

contrejour French term for backlighting, which produces dark silhouettes.

demi-teintes Half-tones, the range of graduated tones between light and dark in Clair-Obscur painting.

diluent Generally, any substance added to paint or varnish to thin it, rendering it fluid and easy to apply. Turpentine is commonly used to dilute oil paint.

dragging Gestural brushwork technique used in Oil Painting, in which stiff, hogs’ hair brushes loaded with colour are drawn across a textured dry or wet paint surface, accentuating brush marks and broken colour effects.

drying oils These have the ‘property of forming a solid, elastic substance when exposed to the air in thin layers’ (Gettens and Stout 1966, p. 18), e.g. linseed oil, walnut oil, poppy oil. They form the Medium (vehicle, or binder) for Pigments in Oil Painting (see chapter 7).

easel painting Painting in restricted size, suitable for an easel (see Standard Supports); also, a work painted on an easel.

ébauche Block-in or underpainting, the initial layer of an Oil Painting, executed in fluid, dilute paint (see Sauce), which establishes the composition in masses of light and shade, or of colour (cf. Étude and Esquisse).

en plein air See Plein Air.

esquisse Small compositional sketch, often in oils and broadly handled, working out the first idea for a larger painting; can also be in other media (see Étude and Esquisse).

étude Preparatory study in oils for a larger ‘finished’ painting, or tableau; in academic practice the étude was made after nature, often rapidly, and generally from fragments (individual figures or partial figures) to perfect each element of the composition in preparation for the final painting. Landscape études were direct outdoor studies of the motif (see On the Motif), which served as aides-mémoire for painting finished landscapes in the studio. The étude was considered crude and unfinished compared to studio tableaux (see also Plein Air, and cf. Tableau, Ébauche and Esquisse, and see chapter 1).

extender Any inert substance added to oil paint to give bulk to the Pigment; some pigments with very high tinting strength require some extender, but excessive use adulterates the paint, reducing the pigment’s Tinting Power (see chapter 7).

facture Manner in which an artist applies the paint, the distinctive paint handling, knife- or brushwork.

frottis Scumble, ‘a very thin layer of colour applied with either a marten or a hogs’ hair brush and leaving visible the grain of the canvas or the tint of the panel’ (Adeline 1884, p. 214). Diaphanous, the frottis forms a fine, translucent veil over the colour or colours below, modifying them: a pale frottis over a darker colour creates a cool bluish tint; a dark frottis over a pale base makes it appear warmer (see Translucency).

full-face light Direct light falling from behind the painter, full on to the subject or motif being depicted; frontal lighting.

glaze/glazing Glaçis, a thin layer of transparent oil colour applied over a dried paint layer, modifying the colours below and unifying the surface appearance. Light is transmitted by a glaze and penetrates the paint layer, making the colours appear richer and more saturated, glossy and jewel-like in brilliance (in contrast to an Opaque paint layer).

gouache Opaque Watercolour, containing the same ingredients but with the addition of chalk to brighten some of the duller colours.

gris-clair light Bright, neutral daylight found in overcast weather; indirect, it produces almost no shadow (cf. Contrejour, Full-Face and Side Light, and see chapter 8).

ground Often used synonymously with the term Priming, the opaque layer of colour applied to the painting Support over the initial glue Size layer, to prepare it to receive the paint layer. The ground may be applied commercially or Self-Primed; it may be white, tinted or coloured (see Tint, and chapter 4).

hiding power The capacity of a colour to obscure the colour over which it is applied (cf. Adulterant, Tinting Power).

hue Usually employed to mean the actual appearance of colour – reddish, blue-grey, greenish yellow, etc. – rather than the named Pigment colours (see Colour).

huile grasse Sometimes used interchangeably with Boiled Oil; as a result of literal translation, huile grasse has been incorrectly confused with fat or Stand Oil. Huile grasse is a drying oil, boiled with a Siccative substance such as litharge, to accelerate its drying properties; it was often used with slow-drying colours such as the red lakes or bitumen. A transparent dark brown colour, huile grasse darkened further with age and its rapid drying made it prone to cracking (see also chapter 9, note 44).

impasto Paint applied in thick or built-up layers, or in prominent, rough brushstrokes so that it projects from the flat surface of the Picture Plane.

jus See Sauce.

lay-in Used in the present book specifically for a secondary Self-Primed layer (over a commercial Ground), as distinct from the compositional block-in or Ébauche that forms part of the Paint Layer.

linear perspective See Perspective.

matière Physical ‘matter’ of painting, the variety of surface qualities and textures achievable in Oil Painting. A varied matière (contrasting Impasto and Glazes) was considered essential to successful Clair-Obscur painting in nineteenth-century France.

medium Liquid component of paint in which the Pigment is suspended, and which serves to bind it to the painting surface or Support (see chapter 7); also known as vehicle or binder.

millboard See Carton.

mise-en-scène Used to denote a picture’s compositional layout and the disposition of the pictorial components on a given format or canvas shape. Also mise-en-page.

motif See On the Motif.

oil painting Developed in the fifteenth century, this technique exploits Drying Oils as the Pigment Medium; the technique enables relatively protracted work on the Paint Layer, a wide range of painterly effects in knife and Brushwork, and varying qualities of Transparency, Translucency and Opacity in the paint film (cf. Gouache, Pastel, Tempera Painting, Watercolour).

on the motif Painting outdoors from direct observation of the subject matter, the motif (and see Plein Air).

opaque/opacity The terms opacity and Transparency ‘refer to the ability of a substance to transmit light’ (Mayer 1969, p. 269). Opaque paint transmits no light and has good hiding power, covering the layer beneath.

orthogonals See Perspective.

paint layer Layer or layers applied by the painter to the Support over, and distinct from, the Ground or Priming layer or layers. While the paint layer constitutes the painting as such, the ground layer may be left partially exposed and thus incorporated in the visual effect of the painting (see Lay-In).

palette Flat surface on which the painter lays out and mixes paint Colours (usually a thin oval or rectangular board with a thumb-hole in it); also, the selection of colours a painter chooses to work with.

pastel Coloured crayon composed of pure Pigment combined with just enough water-based binder (e.g. gum tragacanth) to hold the particles together in stick form.

perspective Conventional system for representing a three-dimensional scene on a two-dimensional surface. Linear perspective employs mathematical geometry to position the spectator’s eye at a given viewpoint on, and viewing distance from, a horizon line, opposite a fictive vanishing point towards which all horizontal lines in the painting (orthogonals) recede. Figures and objects are represented in diminishing scale calculated to give the illusion of recession and space. In landscape painting, aerial perspective, in which atmospheric recession is suggested by a blueness and desaturation of Hue towards the horizon, was often used as an alternative to linear perspective. In nineteenth-century ‘picturesque’ perspective, the lines are curved rather than rigorously straight (see Picture Plane).

picture plane Flat, two-dimensional surface (e.g. Canvas) upon which the painted illusion is created and forward from which any heavy Impasto projects. In perspectival theory, the canvas that forms the picture plane is like a transparent screen held up by the painter in front of the scene, on which the subject matter is disposed as if visible through it, a continuation of what the painter/viewer sees ‘beyond’ the picture plane (see Perspective).

‘picturesque’ perspective See Perspective.

pigment Colouring matter, which can be organic or synthetically produced, which is combined with a Medium to form paint.

plein air, en plein air Outdoor painting done under natural daylight conditions, from direct observation of a subject or motif (see On the Motif).

pochade (verb pocher) ‘An esquisse, a sketch [croquis] freely and rapidly seized’ (Adeline 1884, p. 338), commonly smaller than an Étude and in any medium, including oils; also, a cheap, lightweight Canvas for such sketching.

primary colours See Colour.

priming Layer or layers applied to the Support to seal and prepare the surface to receive the Paint Layer; sometimes used to denote the initial glue Size layer as distinct from the Ground, but the two terms tend to be used interchangeably (see chapters 4 and 5).

projected shadow See Cast Shadow.

ready-primed Support primed by the manufacturer and sold ready to paint on; ready-primed Canvas could be bought ready-stretched for use in standard sizes; in non-standard sizes on made-to-order stretchers, and in rolls for self-stretching by the artist.

saturation In colour terminology, intensity or vividness of hue. The extent of colour saturation is gauged by the relative absence of white, dull or greying colour (see Tint, Tinting Power).

sauce or jus Most commonly, the dilute reddish-brown colour used to establish tone in the Ébauche (underpainting) in academic Oil Painting (see chapter 6).

scumble See Frottis.

secondary colours See Colour.

self-primed Ground applied to the Support by the artist, rather than commercially (see Lay-In, Priming, Ready-Primed).

self-shadow See Attached Shadow.

siccative French siccatif, drying agent. A substance added to oil to speed its drying; also, the effect of adding such a substance (see Boiled Oil, Huile Grasse, and chapter 7).

side light A direct light source from the side, falling parallel to the Picture Plane (see Full-Face, Gris-Clair, Contrejour).

simultaneous contrast Law that any two Colours (not only Complementary Colours) placed side by side will appear as dissimilar as possible, both in their colour and tone. Simultaneous contrast is thus also an effect of brightness; adjacent lights and darks being similarly accentuated, the darks appear darker and the lights lighter in contrast to each other.

size Glue forming the first layer of a Ground and sealing the Support ready for an additional layer or layers of Priming (see chapter 4).

spectral colours In painting, Pigments close in Hue to the colours of the spectrum: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, violet (see Colour).

stand oil In the nineteenth century, a Drying Oil thickened to high viscosity by being left to stand; less prone to yellowing than Boiled Oil or Huile Grasse, it was used as an ingredient in Oil Painting Mediums and varnishes (see chapter 7).

standard supports Off-the-shelf Easel-Painting Supports in Canvas, Carton, panel and paper sold ready-made by artists’ colourmen in a range of fixed sizes, principally for oil and Watercolour painting and sketching but also for Pastel painting (see chapter 2).

strainer At times used interchangeably with the term Stretcher; also, a traditional fixed-bar stretcher.

stretcher Frame of wooden bars to which is attached the fabric Support for painting. The movable-jointed key stretcher design dates from the mid-eighteenth century (see also Strainer and chapter 2).

support Rigid surface on which a painting is executed (see Canvas, Carton, Academy Board, Carton-Toile and chapters 2 and 3)

tableau A painting ‘finished’, usually in the studio, or considered complete (see Étude).

tache Touche or touch, a term associated from the 1860s with summary execution in realist and naturalist Oil Painting, notably that of the Impressionists, hence the term tachistes; also, distinct, unblended dabs of often bright colour, placed side by side.

tempera painting Painting with a Medium based on egg, egg emulsion or glue, giving a matt, blond tonality and chalky appearance to the painted surface.

tint Colour, usually white, modified by the addition of a small amount of another colour, variously designated as ton or, more precisely, teinte in French (see Saturation, Tone, Tinting Power).

tinting power In paint terminology, a Pigment’s relative strength of Colour Saturation (cf. Adulterant, Hiding Power).

tone Generally, relative darkness or lightness, as distinct from Hue, Saturation or Tint. It suggests masses, as against line (see also Clair-Obscur).

translucency Translucent or semi-opaque paint permits the partial transmission of light, giving a veil or cloudy effect through partial reflection of light from the surface. Scumbles normally employ translucent paint (see Frottis, also Transparency and Opacity).

transparency Transparency and opacity ‘refer to the ability of a substance to transmit light’ (Mayer 1969, p. 269); transparent paint permits light to pass through it, hence exposing the layer below. Coloured Glazes are a typical use of transparent oil paint (see also Translucency).

trompe-l’œil French term for ‘deceiving the eye’; it suggests painting in which the objects are so realistically depicted as to fool the beholder into believing they are real.

underpainting See Ébauche.

vanishing point See Perspective.

varnish Solution of a resin (e.g. copal or dammar) in a volatile solvent, brushed over the dry Paint Layer to protect it from dirt and pollution. Varnish dries to form a hard, transparent film; it was often brilliantly glossy (see chapter 12).

vehicle See Medium.

watercolour Paint made with Pigments dispersed in a solution with gum arabic as a binder; watercolour painting is transparent, exploiting the white of the paper to read as lights.

wax Common additive in oil paint manufacture, which adds body to liquid colours and helps prevent the separation of oil and Pigment in storage.

wet in wet Oil painting with wet colour directly into wet paint; also, slurring and mixing wet colour into a wet paint layer.

wet over dry Oil painting with wet colour over a dry paint surface (see also Dragging, Frottis, Glaze).

wet over wet Applying wet paint over a paint layer that still remains wet, but as much as possible avoiding dragging up and slurring the underlying colours.

Next chapter

Base text size -

Chapter images ()