Oil painting reproductions are paintings that have been created by copying in oils an original
oil painting
Oil painting is a painting method involving the procedure of painting with pigments combined with a drying oil as the Binder (material), binder. It has been the most common technique for artistic painting on canvas, wood panel, or oil on coppe ...
by an artist.
Oil painting reproductions are distinct from original oil painting such as are often of interest to collectors and
museums. Oil painting reproduction can, however, sometimes be regarded as artworks in themselves.
Types
Oil painting reproductions can be labeled with several different categories, including:
* Studio of: created in the studio of a master artist, perhaps with their supervision or participation.
* Circle of: a work created by someone associated with the original artist, during or in the years immediately following the artist’s own lifetime.
* After: an exact or partial imitation of a known work by a famous artist.
* Style of: an interpretation of the artist’s style done by someone else at a later date.
History
The traces of oil painting reproduction can be found starting in the 16th century. Traditionally, students of the
learned how to paint by working in the style of their teachers.
This process of mimicking their master’s work would enable a student to practice a skilled mode of painting before developing their own approach. Many famous artists employed this practice, including
John Singer Sargent
John Singer Sargent (; January 12, 1856 – April 15, 1925) was an American expatriate artist, considered the "leading portrait painter of his generation" for his evocations of Edwardian era, Edwardian-era luxury. He created roughly 900 oil ...
,
Edgar Degas, and
Pablo Picasso
Pablo Diego José Francisco de Paula Juan Nepomuceno María de los Remedios Cipriano de la Santísima Trinidad Ruiz y Picasso (25 October 1881 – 8 April 1973) was a Spanish painter, sculptor, printmaker, Ceramic art, ceramicist, and Scenic ...
.
Perhaps the most well known of all students who learned by reproduction was
Leonardo da Vinci
Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci (15 April 1452 - 2 May 1519) was an Italian polymath of the High Renaissance who was active as a painter, draughtsman, engineer, scientist, theorist, sculptor, and architect. While his fame initially rested o ...
. Beginning as an apprentice under the master sculptor and painter
Andrea Del Verrocchio
Andrea del Verrocchio ( , , ; born Andrea di Michele di Francesco de' Cioni; – 1488) was an Italian sculpture, sculptor, List of Italian painters, painter and goldsmith who was a master of an important workshop in Florence.
He apparently bec ...
, Leonardo would have learned to paint in the style of the master himself. It is said that after Leonardo brilliantly aided Verrocchio in the painting of
The Baptism of Christ, the master resolved to never touch a brush again
Forms
*
Oil on canvas
*
Oil on panel
*
Oil on copper
Copyright issues
There are several issues related to
art forgery and
copyright violation that apply to the reproduction of oil paintings.
Copyright laws vary from country to country.
In the U.S., there is no copyright infringement that applies to a painting 70 years after the death of its artist.
References
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Painting
Copying
Reproduction
Reproduction (or procreation or breeding) is the biological process by which new individual organisms – "offspring" – are produced from their "parent" or parents. There are two forms of reproduction: Asexual reproduction, asexual and Sexual ...