Grisaille

The term "Grisaille" refers to a monochromatic technique historically employed by master artists and artisans.

Reveling in the Gray Area Lizzie Simon 2011

Grisaille painting was most often used as a preliminary step to work out the tonal values, or as a part of the process in painting, before the colors were overlaid in transparent glazes.

Archive 2010-01-01 James Gurney 2010

Grisaille painting was most often used as a preliminary step to work out the tonal values, or as a part of the process in painting, before the colors were overlaid in transparent glazes.

Monochromatic Color James Gurney 2010

Grisaille is a separate branch of colour-decoration which belongs with the whole system of lighting and fenetrage, and will have to remain a closed book because the feeling and experience which explained it once are lost, and we cannot recover either.

Mont-Saint-Michel and Chartres Henry Adams 1878

Grisaille is not limited to Netherlandish illuminations.

Illuminated Manuscripts John William Bradley 1873

Grisaille, with its lace-work of transparent grey, set here and there with a ruby, a sapphire, a gemmed medallion, interrupts the clear light on things hardly more than the plain glass, of which indeed such windows are mainly composed.

Miscellaneous Studies; a series of essays Walter Pater 1866

To give you an idea of the content, here’s a plate showing “A Method of Painting for Grisaille Preparation or for Direct Colour.”

Archive 2009-04-01 James Gurney 2009

To give you an idea of the content, here’s a plate showing “A Method of Painting for Grisaille Preparation or for Direct Colour.”

Solomon J. Solomon James Gurney 2009

Yana Paskova for The New York Times The artist Rachel Feinstein, center, at dinner at Sant Ambroeus after the opening of "Grisaille."

NYT > Home Page By JULIA CHAPLIN 2011

LIT SAYS: "Grisaille is a type of underpainting, an old master technique.

SuicideGirls Photosets 2009