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term meaning

 

19th Century Attitudes to the Nude in Art
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The practise of painting the naked human form in a society where prejudice and moral rectitude was deeply entrenched against such "degenerate" behaviour

Abstraction
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A non realistic painting that uses shapes, colours and lines to create a finished composition.
Acrylic
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Fast drying synthetic resin, widely used as an alternative to oil paint
advanced search facility
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 Search system that gives 6 unique areas to locate a painting

Advertising art
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Original art used to sell a product of service

Anatomical painting
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Depiction of human or animal bodies in art

Approach
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 The subject matter of the picture
Aquatint
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 Etching technique that tonally resembles a watercolour.
Art theft
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Unlawful removal of a work of art

Avant-garde
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Experimental or cutting edge art, the forerunner of a new artist movement

Baroque
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Highly ornate and stylised European art movement

Bauhaus
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German art school founded by Walter Groupius in 1919

Bloomsbury
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English group of artists noted for their unconventional lifestyles.

Board
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Firm material on which to apply paint, draw or print

Book illustration
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Art produced to enhance or educate in printed books

Canals and Art
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Artistic works showing canals

canvas
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A fabric painting surface supported by a wooden stretcher or board

Care and storage of art
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How to look after your art

Cartoons
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A preparatory drawing or humorous depiction of a person or event

Chalks
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Drawing medium in various shades of red, black and white

chiaroscuro
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Contrast of light and dark in paintings.
Children in art
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Depiction of children in paintings

Chinese white
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Opaque paint added to watercolour

Classification
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We have classified all our paintings in many different ways, so that we can describe them and you can find them. Use this heading to look for a painting with a specific subject.
Cobra
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20th Century European art movement

Cockling
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Rippling effect on painted paper

Collage
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2 dimensional picture applied to a flat surface.

Colour
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How things look in response to light.

Composition
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Arrangement of elements in a painting

Condition (of the Picture)
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The graded quality of the paintings condition

Contemporary art
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Current artistic movements and styles from the post war period

Cross hatching
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Drawn intersecting lines

Cubism
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Early 20th C. art movement

Dada
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 Art movement or attitude from the early 20th C.

Drawing materials
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Substance used to create an impression on a surface.

Drypoint
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Etching technique where the plate is incised directly, without the use of acid.

Engraving
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Etching technique on to a metal plate by direct means using a metal burin.

Etching
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A printmaking technique

Euston Road
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20th C. English art group

Exhibited works
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Exhibition history of a work

Expressionism
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Early 20th C. German art movement

Fauvism
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Early 20th C. art movement centered around a group of French painters.

Faux naive
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Trained artists painting in an untutored style

Figurative
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Paintings based around the human figure

Foreshortening
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Receding perspective in a picture

Frame
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Architectural support for a painting

Fresco
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Colour wash painting applied to a damp plaster wall.
Futurism
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Italian 20th C. art movement that vehemently  denounced all previous art

Genre Painting
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Paintings of everyday life from the human perspective

Georgian Art
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Paintings from the 18th and 19th C.

Gesso
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Base coat over which to apply paint.

Glazing pictures
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Protection of art by glass

Golden Section
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The classical law of painting in the ratio of one third to two thirds

Gouache
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An opaque painting medium sometimes called Chinese white

Grisaille
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Grey painting medium

Ground
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Base colour over which paint is applied

Gum Arabic
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A varnish for watercolours

History of work
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 How this picture came to be produced.
Horse Racing and the Art market
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Horses and racing in art

How an oil painting is produced
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Technique of painting in oils

How oil paintings age
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The aging process of oil paintings explained

How should I glaze my picture
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Techniques of glazing paintings

How to choose art
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What to look for in a painting

How to hang a painting
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Techniques of picture hanging

How to light art
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Techniques of lighting pictures to give the best effect

How to measure a painting
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Technique of measuring pictures correctly

How to stop my paintings hanging crookedly
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How to avoid the problem of pictures hanging on the skew

How to stretch a canvas
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Technique of stretching a canvas over a stretcher

How watercolours age.
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The reasons why watercolours fade

Impasto
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Thick areas of paint or texture
Impressionism
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French art movement

Intaglio
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A printmaking term

Interiors
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The practise of painting interiors with or without figures

Japan
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Printing paper associated with woodblock printing

Japanese Prints
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A Japanese art form of woodblock printing.

Kitchen Sink
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Post war British art movement, the term deriving from an expressionist painting by John Bratby

Landscape painting
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 Painting the countryside
Lining
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A picture restoration technique

Linocut
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A printing process on to lino

Lithograph
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A print making technique directly onto a stone block with greasy ink or crayon

Lyrical
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An art term indicating a certain spiritual or emotional quality.

Mannerist paintings
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A 16th C. art style that was a reaction to the harmony and proportion of the High Renaissance

Medium
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Medium relates to the substance used to produce a painting

metal
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A painting substrate providing a strong flat surface

Mezzotint
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A print making technique where the artist roughs up the entire surface of the plate with a metal tool.

Mixed media
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A painting where the artist has mixed different types of paint together to produce a slightly different effect

Modern Art
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Art form from the 19th/20th Century characterized by formal experimentation and exploration of subjects and mediums.

Modern British
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20th Century art movement and style from the first half of the 20th century.

Monochrome
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A painting executed in one colour or shades of a single colour

Monotype.
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A painting technique resulting in a unique print

Mounting a work of art
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Part of the picture framing process for watercolours and prints

Mural painting
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Painting directly on to a dry wall

Naive Painting and Alfred Wallis
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A painting style exemplified by Alfred Wallis, an old Cornish fisherman

Nude paintings in art
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Representation of the naked human form

Oil Paint
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A powdered pigment  which is held together with linseed oil

Oil painting
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The technique of applying paint with a brush or palette knife
Ornithological Paintings
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The art of bird painting

Palette
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A thin piece of glass, wood or other material, or pad of paper, which is used to hold the paint to be used in painting.
paper
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The base material for most drawings, watercolours and prints

Pastel
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A drawing stick made of ground pigments and chalk mixed with gum water and oil.
Pen and ink
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A pen outline of an image usually in black or blue ink
Pen and wash
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A thin layer of translucent or transparent watercolour with a drawn outline in pen and ink.
Perspective
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The representation of a three-dimensional space on a flat or relief surface giving a sense of depth.
Photography
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The process of capturing an image onto light sensitve material from which a finished photograph is usually printed.

Picture size
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The measurement of pictures in both inches and millimetres on this site

Plate mark
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The impression of a metal printing plate into the paper substrate
Plein air
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The act of painting in the outdoors rather than in the studio.
Pointillism
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 A method of painting developed by Georges Seurat and Paul Signac in the 1880s  using dabs of pure colour.
Pop art
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 Movement started in the 1950s that used images of mass media, advertising, and popular culture.
Portraiture
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The art of capturing an image of an individual on canvas both realistically and in an abstract form.

 

Post impressionism
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Works produced by a group of late nineteenth-century painters, including Cezanne, Van Gogh, and Gauguin.
Post Modernism
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 The period of art which followed the modern period from the 1950's until recently.
Primer
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Primer is the ground over which paint is applied
Principal other features
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This classification lists the lesser details of the picture displayed on Room4art
Principal subject
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The principal features of classifications 2 and 3.
Print
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A generic term for a multitude of printing processes all of which are covered individually in this glossary.
Product Type
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 Product type refers to the picture being a drawing, painting, photograph or printing process. .
Provenance
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The history of ownership of the picture

Public art galleries
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 Non selling Art Galleries open to the public

Representational
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Art that is immediately recognizable for what it is 
Restoration
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Details of any restoration to the picture.

Restoration of paintings
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The process of cleaning and repairing damaged works of art.
Reverse frames
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A specific style of picture frame

Royal academician
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 Member or an Associate of the Royal Academy in London, the Royal Scottish Academy in Edinburgh, the Royal Hibernian Academy in Dublin or the Cambrian Academy in Wales.
Running pattern
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A decorated frame content that maybe highly elaborate.
School
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 Term used to describe a period of art. E.g. Georgian school
Screen-print
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A printing technique using paint or ink and a gauze mess.

Seascapes
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The painting of sea pictures with or without boats.
Self portraits
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The art of painting oneself
Silver Point
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A form of drawing on to a prepared surface that shows silver when inscribed.
Sport in Art
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Art that depicts sport and sporting venues.

Study
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A preliminary drawing for a painting or a sketch by means of lines
Style
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Style refers to the appearance of the picture as a whole, rather than the approach to the subject.  For example, it could be representational, abstract, impressionist or many other styles, all of which are described in more detail in this glossary.

Substrate
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The surface onto which a painting, print or photograph has been applied.

Swept
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An elaborate and often highly ornate picture frame

Tempera
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A painting using a pigment that is mixed with water or egg yolk and then applied to board or panel.
The Colourists
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A group of 4 painters from Glasgow working mainly in the first quarter of the 20th C.

The Scottish Highlands
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 An inspirational area of the British Isles for artists, wishing to capture the grandeur and changing moods of a beautiful and rugged landscape.

The Summer exhibition
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Annual exhibition held in Burlington House Piccadilly of the cream of the artist output from the last year
The technique of drawing
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The technique of applying pencil, chalks, ink, charcoal and brush to a surface. 

Varnish
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A clear liquid that is applied to oil and acrylic paint that when dry forms a protective hard layer.

Vellum
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A rarely used substrate for paint.

Watercolour
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A transparent water based paint that is absorbed by the paper on to which it is applied.

Wax Resist
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The application of wax to stop paint or ink being absorbed by the substrate.

Welcome to Room4art.com™
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Welcome to Room4art.com™
Where to hang a painting
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The positioning of a painting on a wall

Windmills
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The depiction of Windmills by artists.

Woodcut
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A relief technique using a hardwood , often Box. The wood is carved out leaving raised areas that are inked and then printed.
Yellowing of oil paintings
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An effect on oil paintings caused by the atmosphere over a number of years.

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