Oil paint - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

1 of 5

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oil_paint

Oil paint
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Oil paint is a type of slow-drying paint that consists

of particles of pigment suspended in a drying oil,
commonly linseed oil. The viscosity of the paint may
be modified by the addition of a solvent such as
turpentine or white spirit, and varnish may be added
to increase the glossiness of the dried oil paint film.
Oil paints have been used in Europe since the 12th
century for simple decoration, but were not widely
adopted as an artistic medium until the early 15th
century. Common modern applications of oil paint
are in finishing and protection of wood in buildings
and exposed metal structures such as ships and
bridges. Its hard-wearing properties and luminous
colors make it desirable for both interior and
exterior use on wood and metal. Due to its
slow-drying properties, it has recently been used in
paint-on-glass animation. Thickness of coat has
considerable bearing on time required for drying:
thin coats of oil paint dry relatively quickly.

View of Delft in oil paint, by Johannes Vermeer.

Contents
1 History
1.1 First recorded use
1.2 Classical and medieval period
1.3 Renaissance onwards
1.4 Paint tube
2 Carrier
2.1 Characteristics
2.2 Sources
2.3 Extraction methods and processing
3 Pigment
3.1 Toxicity
4 See also
5 References

History
The technical history of the introduction and development of oil paint, and the date of introduction of various
additives (driers, thinners) is stilldespite intense research since the mid 18th centurynot well understood.
The literature abounds with incorrect theories and information: in general, anything published before 1952 is
suspect.[1] Until 1991 nothing was known about the organic aspect of cave paintings from the Paleolithic era.

2/10/2016 11:32 AM

Oil paint - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

2 of 5

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oil_paint

Many assumptions were made about the chemistry of the binders.

First recorded use

The oldest known oil paintings date from 650 AD, found in 2008 in caves in Afghanistan's Bamiyan Valley,
"using walnut and poppy seed oils."[2]

Classical and medieval period

Though the ancient Mediterranean civilizations of Greece, Rome, and Egypt used vegetable oils, there is little
evidence to indicate their use as media in painting. Indeed, linseed oil was not used as a medium because of its
tendency to dry very slowly, darken, and crack, unlike mastic and wax (the latter of which was used in encaustic
painting).
Greek writers such as Aetius Amidenus recorded recipes involving the use of oils for drying, such as walnut,
poppy, hempseed, pine nut, castor, and linseed. When thickened, the oils became resinous and could be used as
varnish to seal and protect paintings from water. Additionally, when yellow pigment was added to oil, it could be
spread over tin foil as a less expensive alternative to gold leaf.
Early Christian monks maintained these records and used the techniques in their own artworks. Theophilus
Presbyter, a 12th-century German monk, recommended linseed oil but advocated against the use of olive oil due
to its long drying time. Oil paint was mainly used as it is today in house decoration, as a tough waterproof cover
for exposed woodwork, especially outdoors.
In the 13th century, oil was used to detail tempera paintings. In the 14th century, Cennino Cennini described a
painting technique utilizing tempera painting covered by light layers of oil. The slow-drying properties of organic
oils were commonly known to early painters. However, the difficulty in acquiring and working the materials
meant that they were rarely used (and indeed the slow drying was seen as a disadvantage[3]).

Renaissance onwards
As public preference for naturalism increased, the quick-drying tempera paints became insufficient to achieve
the very detailed and precise effects that oil could achieve. The Early Netherlandish painting of the 15th century
saw the rise of the panel painting purely in oils, or oil painting, or works combing tempera and oil painting, and
by the 16th century easel painting in pure oils had become the norm, using much the same techniques and
materials found today. The claim by Vasari that Jan van Eyck "invented" oil painting is not correct but has cast a
long shadow, but van Eyck's use of oil paint achieved novel results in terms of precise detail and mixing colours
wet-on-wet with a skill hardly equalled since. Van Eycks mixture may have consisted of piled glass, calcined
bones, and mineral pigments boiled in linseed oil until they reached a viscous stateor he may have simply used
sun-thickened oils (slightly oxidized by Sun exposure). He left no written documentation.
The Flemish-trained or influenced Antonello da Messina, who Vasari wrongly credited with the introduction of
oil paint to Italy,[4] does seem to have improved the formula by adding litharge, or lead (II) oxide. The new
mixture had a honey-like consistency and better drying properties (drying evenly without cracking). This
mixture was known as oglio cotto"cooked oil." Leonardo da Vinci later improved these techniques by
cooking the mixture at a very low temperature and adding 5 to 10% beeswax, which prevented darkening of the
paint. Giorgione, Titian, and Tintoretto each may have altered this recipe for their own purposes.
The use of any cooked oils or Litharge (sugar of Lead) darkens an oil painting rapidly. None of the old Masters
whose work survives used these in their paintings. Both ingredients became popular in the 19th century. Since

2/10/2016 11:32 AM

Oil paint - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

3 of 5

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oil_paint

that time, experiments to improve paint and coatings have been conducted with other oils. Modern oil paints are
created from bladderpod, ironweed, calendula and sandmat, plants used to increase the resistance or to reduce
the drying time.

Paint tube
The paint tube was invented in 1841 by portrait painter John Goffe Rand,[5]
superseding pig bladders and glass syringes[6] as the primary tool of paint
transport. Artists, or their assistants, previously ground each pigment by
hand, carefully mixing the binding oil in the proper proportions. Paints
could now be produced in bulk and sold in tin tubes with a cap. The cap
could be screwed back on and the paints preserved for future use, providing
flexibility and efficiency to painting outdoors. The manufactured paints had
a balanced consistency that the artist could thin with oil, turpentine, or other
mediums.
Tubes of various colors.
Paint in tubes also changed the way some artists approached painting. The
artist Pierre-Auguste Renoir said, Without tubes of paint, there would have
been no Impressionism. For the Impressionists, tubed paints offered an easily accessible variety of colors for
their plein air palettes, motivating them to make spontaneous color choices. With greater quantities of preserved
paint, they were able to apply paint more thickly.

Carrier
Characteristics
Traditional oil paints require an oil that always hardens,
forming a stable, impermeable film. Such oils are called
siccative, or drying, oils, and are characterized by high
levels of polyunsaturated fatty acids. One common measure
of the siccative property of oils is iodine number, the
number of grams of iodine one hundred grams of oil can
absorb. Oils with an iodine number greater than 130 are
considered drying, those with an iodine number of 115-130
are semi-drying, and those with an iodine number of less
than 115 are non-drying. Linseed oil, the most prevalent
vehicle for artists' oil paints, is a drying oil.

Representative component of a drying oil, this

particular triester is derived from three unsaturated
fatty acids, linoleic (top), alpha-linolenic (middle),
and oleic acids (bottom). The order of drying rate is
linolenic > linoleic > oleic acid, reflecting their
degree of unsaturation.

When exposed to air, oils do not undergo the same

evaporative process that water does. Instead, they polymerize into a dry semisolid. This rate of process can be
very slow, depending on the oil.
The advantage of the slow-drying quality of oil paint is that an artist can develop a painting gradually. Earlier
media such as egg tempera dried quickly, which prevented the artist from making changes or corrections. With
oil-based paints, revising was comparatively easy. The disadvantage is that a painting might take months or
years to finish, which might disappoint an anxious patron. Oil paints blend well with each other, making subtle
variations of color possible as well as creating many details of light and shadow. Oil paints can be diluted with
turpentine or other thinning agents, which artists take advantage to paint in layers.

2/10/2016 11:32 AM

Oil paint - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

4 of 5

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oil_paint

Sources
The earliest and still most commonly used vehicle is linseed oil, pressed from the seed of the flax plant. Modern
processes use heat or steam to produce refined varieties of oil with fewer impurities, but many artists prefer
cold-pressed oils.[7] Other vegetable oils such as Hemp, poppy seed, walnut, sunflower, safflower, and soybean
oils may be used as alternatives to linseed oil for a variety of reasons. For example, safflower and poppy oils are
paler than linseed oil and allow for more vibrant whites straight from the tube.

Extraction methods and processing

Once the oil is extracted, additives are sometimes used to modify its chemical properties. In this way, the paint
can be made to dry more quickly (if that is desired), or to have varying levels of gloss, like Liquin. Modern oils
paints can, therefore, have complex chemical structures; for example, affecting resistance to UV. By hand, the
process involves first mixing the paint pigment with the linseed oil to a crumbly mass on a glass or marble slab.
Then, a small amount at a time is ground between the slab and a glass Muller (a round, flat-bottomed glass
instrument with a hand grip). Pigment and oil are ground together 'with patience' until a smooth, ultra-fine paste
is achieved. This paste is then placed into jars or metal paint tubes and labelled.

Pigment
The color of oil paint derives from small particles of colored
pigments mixed with the carrier. Some of the earliest known
pigments are charcoal (black), iron oxide (rust red), and gypsum
(white).
Common pigment types include mineral salts such as white oxides:
zinc, titanium, and the red to yellow cadmium pigments. Another
class consists of earth types, e.g. sienna or umber. Still another
group of pigments comes from living organisms, such as madder
root.
Synthetic pigments are also now available. Natural pigments have
the advantage of being well understood through centuries of use, but
synthetics have greatly increased the spectrum of available colors,
and many are tested well for their lightfastness.

Pigments for sale at a market stall in Goa,

India.

Toxicity
Many of the historical pigments were dangerous, and many pigments still in popular use today are highly toxic.
Some of the most poisonous pigments, such as Paris green (copper(II) acetoarsenite) and orpiment (arsenic
sulfide), have fallen from use.
Many pigments still in use are toxic to some degree. Commonly used reds and yellows are produced using
cadmium, and vermilion red uses natural or synthetic mercuric sulfide or cinnabar. Flake white and Cremnitz
white are made with basic lead carbonate. Some intense blue colors, including cobalt blue and cerulean blue, are
made with cobalt compounds. Some varieties of cobalt violet are made with cobalt arsenate.

See also

2/10/2016 11:32 AM

Oil paint - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

5 of 5

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oil_paint

Acrylic paint
Acrylic painting techniques
Drying oil
Egg tempera
Oil painting
Semi-drying oil
Watercolor
Oil painting reproduction

References
Mayer, Ralph. The Artist's Handbook of Materials and Techniques Viking Adult; 5th revised and updated
edition, 1991. ISBN 0-670-83701-6
1. Coremans, Gettens, Thissen, La technique des Primitifs flamands, Studies in Conservation 1 (1952)
2. "Oldest Oil Paintings Found in Afghanistan" (http://dsc.discovery.com/news/2008/02/19/oldest-oil-painting.html),
Rosella Lorenzi, Discovery News. Feb. 19, 2008.
3. Theophilus Presbyter Book I ch. 25
4. Barbera, Giocchino (2005). Antonello da Messina, Sicily's Renaissance Master (exhibition catalogue). New York:
Metropolitan Museum of Art Yale University Press. ISBN 0-300-11648-9 (online)
(http://libmma.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/compoundobject/collection/p15324coll10/id/51392), p. 14
5. Hurt, Perry. "Never Underestimate the Power of a Paint Tube". Smithsonian Magazine. Smithsonian Institution.
Retrieved 18 May 2013.
6. Callen, Anthea. The Art of Impressionsm: How Impressionism Changed the Art World. Yale University Press.
2000.
7. H. Gluck, "The Impermanences of Painting in Relation to Artists' Materials", Journal of the Royal Society of Arts,
Volume CXII 1964

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Oil_paint&oldid=699895610"

Categories: Paints Oils
This page was last modified on 15 January 2016, at 02:35.
Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License; additional terms may
apply. By using this site, you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Wikipedia is a registered
trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., a non-profit organization.

2/10/2016 11:32 AM