Oil sketch
An oil sketch or oil study is an artwork made primarily in oil paint in preparation for a larger, finished work. Originally these were created as preparatory studies or modelli, especially so as to gain approval for the design of a larger commissioned painting. They were also used as designs for specialists in other media, such as printmaking or tapestry, to follow. Later they were produced as independent works, often with no thought of being expanded into a full-size painting.
The
History
One of the earliest artists to produce oil sketches was
In the early 17th century the oil sketch became widely used, as it was suited to conveying the drama of Baroque art. Rubens made great use of them, as working studies, and as modelli for clients, his own assistants, engravers and tapestry-makers. Their degree of finish varies accordingly. Rubens' working practices influenced others, such as Anthony van Dyck, who did not normally use oil sketches for the portraits that were the bulk of his output, but did for his print series the Iconographie, and for other works such as a projected series of tapestries and some religious paintings. The Magistrate of Brussels, recognised in England in 2013, may be a Van Dyck portrait oil sketch.
Perhaps the first to produce oil sketches as independent works was Giovanni Benedetto Castiglione, an amazingly fecund generator of compositions on a relatively small range of subjects. He grew up and trained in Genoa, and apparently had contact with both Rubens and Van Dyck during their stays there. He produced a large number of small works, mostly on paper, in a mixture of mediums - drawings or gouaches finished in oil, oils with pen details - in fact, most possible permutations. Detail is typically restricted to a few key points, with much of the subject conveyed in impressionistic fashion. By this time a collectors' market for studies in drawing was well developed, and there was appreciation of their energy and freedom. Castiglione's sketches to some extent seem to trade off this appreciation, and look more unfinished and offhand than they actually are - a concept with a great future.
A systematic producer of small modelli sketches on canvas with a high degree of finish was the 18th century
By the 19th century oil sketches, often referred to as "oil studies" if from this period, had become very common, both as preparatory works, and for their own sake. The popularity of the oil sketch engendered the need to formulate distinctions. The esquisse, or oil sketch, tended to be inspirational or imaginative, often originating in literature or art; the etude, or study, tended to represent an observation of nature, painted from life. In academic painting the oil sketch took the form of the croquis, a small and gestural compositional study, and the ébauche, a dynamic laying-in of paint on the full-scale canvas, a temporary stage of the painting eventually leading to greater elaboration.[2]
See also
References
- ^ Brettell, Richard R.: Impression: Painting Quickly in France, pages 31–2. Yale University Press, 2000.
- ^ Brettell, pages 31–9.
- ^ Tate Britain exhibition showing Constable's large landscapes along with their full-size oil sketches
- ^ RTE story & picture
External links
- 3 page article with examples from the Courtauld Institute of Art (search on "oil sketch" for more)
- A contemporary example with comments by the artist from Tate Britain
- A Rubens sketch from Vienna - the subsequent painting can be chosen from the list at right
- Oil Painting Example Gallery by Nitin
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