Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun A style of monochromatic painting in shades of gray, used especially for the representation of relief sculpture.
- noun A painting or design in this style.
- noun Vitrifiable glass paint.
- noun A lacy pattern painted on light glass with vitrifiable paint and fired.
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun A system of painting in gray tints of various shades, produced by mixing white with black, used either simply for decoration, or to represent objects, etc., as if in relief; also, a painting, a stained-glass window, etc., executed according to this method. See
camaieu . - noun A fancy fabric with a cotton warp and a wool weft for women's wear.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun (Fine Arts) Decorative painting in gray monochrome; -- used in English especially for painted glass.
- noun A kind of French fancy dress goods.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun art In painting, a method of working which employs only varying values of
gray to create form. Often a preliminary step in a fully colored painting.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun chiaroscuro painting or stained glass etc., in shades of grey imitating the effect of relief
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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He had noticed that wide double doors, painted in the pale brownish grey called grisaille, formed the further side of the tiny apartment.
The End of Her Honeymoon Marie Belloc Lowndes 1907
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The thickening branches make a pink 'grisaille' against the blue sky.
Men, Women and Ghosts Amy Lowell 1899
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"grisaille," painted by Uccello, in the fifteenth century, in memory of
A Literary History of the English People From the Origins to the Renaissance Jean Jules Jusserand
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February may be the shortest month but rather than see the City of Light doused in grisaille grayness, Parisians go skiing or in search of winter sun—preferably in a corner of the former French empire where there's no danger of English being the lingua franca or steaks being served well-done.
Pruning the Cost of Luxury on the Riviera Lennox Morrison 2011
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The outlines are traced and during the Renaissance, the canvas was painted with a burnt umber ground and an image made using a cloth or a brush to pull out highlights and make a high contrast underpainting called a grisaille.
Leanne Goebel: Isca Greenfield-Sanders & Marc Brandenburg in Denver Leanne Goebel 2011
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A dramatic chandelier of 18th-century lead crystal hangs from a fraying hemp rope, while a modern tripod floor lamp illuminates an antique grisaille wallpaper panel by Zuber.
Rooms With a Viewpoint Charlotte Moss 2011
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A dramatic chandelier of 18th-century lead crystal hangs from a fraying hemp rope, while a modern tripod floor lamp illuminates an antique grisaille wallpaper panel by Zuber.
Rooms With a Viewpoint Charlotte Moss 2011
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Copenhagen-Humlebaek Art "Louisiana on Paper: Vija Celmins" presents a selection of sketches by the Latvian artist known for capturing the realism of black-and-white photography in her grisaille technique.
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When Braque, working from the landscape in 1908, develops a range of whites, blacks, grays, greens and browns in his Cubist paintings, he isn't limiting his palette but inventing a new language inspired equally by Parisian light, modern scientific investigation and Renaissance grisaille.
A Modern Movement Unto Himself Lance Esplund 2011
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The outlines are traced and during the Renaissance, the canvas was painted with a burnt umber ground and an image made using a cloth or a brush to pull out highlights and make a high contrast underpainting called a grisaille.
Leanne Goebel: Isca Greenfield-Sanders & Marc Brandenburg in Denver Leanne Goebel 2011
yarb commented on the word grisaille
...his mind was elsewhere, and he did not shine in the discussion which forever remained in his mind as a grisaille of inconclusive tedium.
- Nabokov, Ada, or Ardor
June 4, 2008