The history and development of the oil painting is complicated and controversial, because no expert knows for certain, how this technique started. However, one thing that experts know, is the oil painting technique originated around them middle of the fifteenth century.
Crescenzio Onofri’s oil painting is probably
one of the earliest of the fifteenth century; this art of work was painted
around 1670-1712.
Landscape with Figures
Crescenzio Onofri
Oil in canvas
The National Gallery, London
The painting is simple, showing a landscape that appears to be
impressionist style, although it is not from that era. Onofri managed to create
a great sense of depth, without leaving brush strokes. The sky is a rather
bright blue, but the colors located in front of the painting seem to indicate
the sun is coming down. The trees and the rest of the vegetation seem very
natural, perhaps blown by the mild wind. The people in the scene add a special
interest, making the public wonder about them and how their lives are.
Gilbert Stuart’s oil painting was created around 1755 and 1828.
Captain John Gell
Gilbert Stuart
Oil on Canvas
Metropolitan Museum of Art
Stuart’s
painting portrays an officer; his pose is very natural as well as the colors
used in this oil painting. The use of brush makes Captain Gell look like a
hero; the bush strokes are very evident in his work. The sense of heroism is
given by the difference in color tones, having the background darker and the
captain, painted with bright colors; he also seems to have light in his face.
The perspective of objects creates a great contrast between the background and
the Captain, giving him an aspect of power and dignity.
Edward John Poynter’s oil painting was painted
around 1836 and 1919.
The
Queen of Sheba
Edward
John Poynter
Watercolor
British
Museum
The
painting portrays a scene with the Queen Sheba and Solomon as they are standing
and facing each other on the steps of Solomon’s palace. The architecture of the
palace is breathtaking, as Poynter follows the descriptions of the Bible about
the palace and the scene. According to The British Museum, Poynter has supplemented the relatively brief Biblical
account of Solomon's palace – which mentions the stone foundations, pillars and
beams of cedar, gold and brass decoration, and the king's throne – with
physical evidence drawn from recent archaeological discoveries”.(The British
Museum, 2002). In addition, the brush strokes are so perfected
that they invisible in the painting.
Claude
Monet is without a doubt one of the favorite artist of all times. His piece of
art, “Coquelicots, was painted in 1873.
Coquelicots
Oil on canvas
Claude Monet
Web museum, Paris
This is a beautiful impressionist
piece. The painting represents a summer day in the country. The pastel colors
give the sensation of warm weather and a sunny day. Also, the people walking
down the prairie and the house in the background make the scene more
interesting. According to Musse d’Orsay,
2006,” In the landscape, a mother and child pair in the foreground and another in
the background is merely a pretext for drawing the diagonal line that
structures the painting. Two separate colour zones are established, one
dominated by red, the other by a bluish green. The young woman with the
sunshade and the child in the foreground are probably the artist's wife, Camille, and
their son Jean” (Musse d’Orsay, 2006); the colors and the way the flowers are directed seem to
indicate the wind is blowing.
Edgar Degas’s “Practicing at the Barre”,
was painted in 1877.
Dancers
Practicing at the Bar
Edgar Degas
Mixed Media on Canvas
Metropolitan Museum of Art,
NY
The painting represents two dancers in the
middle of a ballet class. The faces of the dancers and the pose are accurately
painted in this work art work. According to the Metropolitan Museum of Art
(2011), “Degas
created a witty analogy between the watering can (used to wet down the dust on
the studio floor) and the dancer at the right: the handle on the side imitates
the dancer's left arm, the handle at the top mimics her head, and the spout
approximates her right arm and raised leg”. (The Metropolitan Museum of Art,
2011). Degas was familiar with Ballet performances and for this reason he would
paint using just his memory.
Vincent van Gogh was also
a much known artist. His work “The Olive Trees” was painted between June and
July of 1889.
The Olive Trees
Vincent Van Gogh
Oil on canvas
Museum of Modern Art
When Vincent van Gogh stayed at the Saint-Rémy, he created this
painting, portraying the south of France landscape, in the middle of the
summer. In this scene, colors and lines are exaggerated to go stand out from
regular painters that portrayed scenes in a conventional way. The bright
colors, such as the blue and green give the sensation of heat and dry weather.
Van Gogh set letters to his brother along with the paintings and according to
The Museum of Modern Art (2010), “Van Gogh's letters make it clear that he
created this particular intense vista of the southern French landscape as a
daylight partner to the visionary nocturne of his more famous canvas, The
Starry Night. He felt that both pictures showed, in complementary ways, the
principles he shared with his fellow painter Paul Gauguin, regarding the freedom
of the artist to go beyond "the photographic and silly perfection of some
painters" and intensify the experience of color and linear rhythms”.( The
Museum of Modern Art, 2010).
Paul Gauguin’s oil paint, “The Seed of the Areoi”, was painted in 1892.
The Seed of the Areoi
Paul Gauguin
Oil on burlap
The Museum of the Modern Art
In spring of 1891 Paul Gauguin
traveled to Tahiti having in mind a paradise, very different from the modern
world. However, Tahiti was a French colony at the time, and poverty and hunger
were present. Although Tahiti was far from been the desired paradise, his
paintings represented his dreamed Island with bright colors, fruits and
vegetation. The public can sense pure nature without the men intervention.
According to The Museum of Modern Art (2010), “His use of bright, flat, and
unrealistic colors and his interest in recovering a "pure" subject,
closer to nature, were greatly influential to the next generation of European
artists, including the Fauves and German Expressionists”.( The Museum of Modern
Art, 2010).
The technique of oil painting has
clearly changed throughout the years. The lines, colors, and brush techniques
of each paint, reflects the artist’s view on his or her society and the world
around them.
