Oil Painting Essentials

The working knowledge behind an oil painting: what the paint does, how a canvas is built, and what keeps one looking right for decades.

About these guides

Oil paint is slow, layered and unforgiving, and almost every question people ask us about a painting comes back to that. This section collects what we have learned from having paintings made by hand, one at a time: how long oil really takes to dry, why varnish matters, what cracking and yellowing actually mean, and how to clean a surface without taking part of it with you. Some of it is practical, the kind of thing you need the week a painting arrives. Some of it is background that makes a buying decision easier, like the difference between a printed canvas and real oil on canvas that you can feel with a fingertip. Every reproduction we make is hand painted to order by a trained artist, photographed for your approval before it leaves the studio, and sent rolled in a tube with a certificate of authenticity.

Paintings on this subject

See the whole collection
  • Mona Lisa
    Vendor:
    Leonardo da Vinci

    Mona Lisa

    Regular price
    From $350.00
    Sale price
    From $350.00
    Regular price
  • Mona Lisa
    Vendor:
    Gregorio Undurraga

    Mona Lisa

    Regular price
    From $350.00
    Sale price
    From $350.00
    Regular price
  • Creation of Adam
    Vendor:
    Francesco de' Rossi (Francesco Salviati), "Cecchino"

    Creation of Adam

    Regular price
    From $350.00
    Sale price
    From $350.00
    Regular price
  • Backyards, Greenwich Village
    Vendor:
    John French Sloan

    Backyards, Greenwich Village

    Regular price
    From $350.00
    Sale price
    From $350.00
    Regular price

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