An oil painting is a picture made with pigments bound in a drying oil, most commonly linseed oil, applied to a support such as canvas, wooden panel, copper or board. Oil paint dries slowly, allowing artists to blend colours, build up thin translucent glazes and thicker textured impasto, and achieve a depth and richness of colour that other media struggle to match.
Oil painting developed in northern Europe in the fifteenth century, notably in the Netherlands, and spread to Italy, where Venetian painters embraced canvas as a support. It became the dominant medium of Western easel painting, used by Old Masters, Dutch Golden Age painters, British portraitists of the eighteenth century and generations of landscape, marine, sporting and still life painters. In the country house, oil paintings formed the backbone of family collections. When assessing a painting, collectors consider the artist, subject, quality and condition, together with the frame, labels and inscriptions on the reverse that may reveal provenance. Common condition problems include darkened or discoloured varnish, cracking, flaking paint, tears in the canvas and earlier overpainting. Cleaning, relining and retouching should always be left to a trained conservator, as amateur attempts can cause irreversible damage.
