Learn all about painting. Study the painting definition, the forms of painting, and the art forms in painting. Learn the history of painting, and learn about the most famous painters.
Updated: 11/21/2023
Painting | Definition, Forms & History
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Frequently Asked Questions
What is the best definition of painting?
The best definition of a painting is a work of art that consists of the application of paint onto a surface. Typically these are 2-dimensional works of art, although modern paintings attempt to blur this definition.
What is the importance of painting?
The importance of painting is that it provides a physical manifestation of the painter's emotions and ideas. The painter can utilize a number of different forms and art styles to have the painting accurately represent their vision.
Table of Contents
ShowPainting is artwork that results from the application of paint onto a solid surface. The paint can be made of many materials, as long as it is pigmented liquid that can dry to a solid thin layer. Some different types of paint are acrylic, oil, watercolor, gouache, and encaustic. A painting is defined by its form, so paint on a 3-dimensional form like a sculpture or pottery would not count as a painting. This 2-dimensional piece of artwork captures the painter's vision, whether that means their emotions or their ideas. Like many other forms of artwork, a painting uses the following main elements to convey the painter's intent and theme: color, texture, shapes, lines, and tone. A painting can be in a variety of forms based on the painter's preference or choice of materials.
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Forms of Painting
There are many different forms of painting, as painting can occur on any number of solid surfaces. A few of those forms are listed below.
A mural painting is a painted directly on the surface of a wall or ceiling, typically on the interior of a building in order to prevent weathering. Mural paintings are an old form of painting, as examples of murals are found in ancient tombs and temples. Initially murals were designed with simple 2-dimensional grids, but mural paintings have evolved to incorporate the complexity of the building's architecture and to simulate dimensionality.
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An easel painting is a medium sized painting that is painted on an easel. Easel paintings were typically used as prestige pieces for the wealthy, as they commissioned these paintings to act as focal features in their homes. A panel painting is painted on a wood panel or multiple wood panels. This is an old medium as wood has been available forever and was the most popular medium for transportable paintings until it was overtaken by the use of canvas. These pieces could also act as focal features in private homes, they typically had more of a purpose whether for religious iconography, signboards, or as decoration on functional items like carriages or musical instruments. These paintings were transportable, as opposed to unmovable paintings such as frescos or murals.
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A miniature painting is a portrait painting that is tiny enough to be worn as jewelry. These paintings were initially painted on vellum or prepared paper, but techniques evolved to have paint in enamel on metal or ivory surfaces. The subjects of these portraits were typically loved ones or monarchs. These paintings became less popular with the invention of photography.
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A scroll painting is a painting that uses ink on parchment or silk that is unrolled to view. This form was extremely popular in Chinese or Japanese art, therefore most scroll paintings are viewed right to left. The unfurling of the scroll gave the paintings a sense of flow, which made topics of landscapes popular. The ink paintings were dynamic against the open space of the unpainted scroll, which would later inspire Western art in late nineteenth century.
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Some modern painting forms seek to blur the distinction of what a painting is and what separates it from other forms of art. The modern painting form is varied depending on the painter's vision to deconstruct what makes a painting. This can include irregular canvas surfaces that were not flat, either 3-dimensional or curved, to push against the notion that paintings are inherently flat art pieces. Modern painters have also taken to adding 3-dimensional objects to paintings to avoid simulating texture, light, and dimensionality.
While these forms only describe the medium of the painting, the artistic form of the painting must also be considered when discussing paintings.
Art Forms in Painting
With the long history of painting, many different art forms of painting has been created and refined. Through the use and combination of the five main elements of painting described above, different art forms can be accomplished with the same mediums. Below a select few art forms in painting will be discussed, but there exists more art forms.
Realism refers to an art form that seeks to depict 3-dimensional objects in the real world accurately on a 2-dimensional surface. The goal would be to paint an object so accurately it would appear nearly if not entirely indistinguishable from the real object. Realism does not solely refer to accurately depict objects, but also to depict themes and subjects that are more realistic. This is typically scenes of domestic life of the ordinary person, middle and lower class, as opposed to idealism or the upper class that was the focus of Classicism and Romanticism. The first realism painter is attributed to Gustave Courbet, as he proclaimed to be painting in a realist aesthetic.
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Surrealism is an art form that doesn't have strict rules, as it focuses on the self-expression and content that is highly individual to the painter. A common point of surrealism, however, was the attempt to be illogical or fantastical to prompt the viewer to introspection. Surrealism came about as a result of World War I, as surrealists thought World War I was caused by the excessive rationalism and middle class values and the public needed to connect the conscious and unconscious experience. Some of the most influential surrealist painters are Salvador Dali, Rene Magritte, and Max Ernst.
Impressionism is an art style that puts less emphasis on accurately portraying subject matter and more on the painter's application of texture, tone, and color. This art movement took place between the 1860s to 1880s. The name comes from the idea that the painting gives the impression of the subject matter rather than a realistic depiction of it, which gives the artwork a feeling of spontaneity due to the lack of formal structure. These paintings were vivid due to advances in pigmentation and refusal to use varnish. The subject matter of these paintings were scenes of modern public life set in rural and urban landscapes. Some of the most popular Impressionist painters are Claude Monet, Camille Pissarro, and Edgar Degas.
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Modernism refers to the shift in paintings from historical and conservative subjects and techniques to experiment in new forms of expression. This art form developed in the early to mid twentieth century, building upon the experimentation of the Impressionists of the late nineteenth century. Heavily influenced by industrialization and modern history, modernist paintings had an emphasis on progress and explicit social and political agendas. Some famous modern painters are Pablo Picasso, Henri Matisse, Egon Schiele, and Georgia O'Keeffe. Modernism spawned many different art movements like Cubism, Futurism, and Precisionism.
Abstract painting refers to paintings that do not attempt to represent any accurate reality, but rather use pure forms of painting elements like color, line, and texture. There are various states of abstraction, thus there are numerous art movements and styles within the abstract art form. Cubism and Fauvism are considered early movements of abstraction, but these styles still drew upon reality rather than created from nothing. Pure abstract art didn't become popular until after World War II, although artists like Kazimir Malevich and Piet Mondrian were developing pure abstract art as early as 1910. Some art movements in abstract art were abstract expressionism and constructivism. Some of the famous abstract painters are Jackson Pollock and Mark Rothko.
These art forms developed over time, reflecting the context of the society and historical events in the time they were devised. This is why studying and understanding the history of painting is important to analyzing paintings.
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Painting has evolved over time, as painting has existed for thousands of years. The oldest paintings currently known are cave paintings located in the Chauvet-Pont-d'Arc Cave, shortened to the Chauvet Cave, in Ardeche, France. These cave paintings were discovered in December of 1994 by a trio of cavers, and have been studied ever since. The oldest of these cave paintings are radiocarbon dated to have been created around 35,000 years ago, during the Aurignacian period. These paintings were made with charcoal and red ochre, or an earthen pigment. The subjects of these cave paintings were mostly animals and hand prints.
For thousands of years paintings stayed simple, but gradually evolved in complexity. The subject matter of paintings in early civilizations focused on religious themes, depicting gods and the afterlife, or narratives. Subject matter later evolved to depict historical events, classical subjects, everyday life, and eventually to just attempt to depict emotion and expression. Art history denotes art movements as art styles that expanded beyond small patches to encompass entire countries or cultures. Some of these art movements are defined by their location and time period, such as Edo period in Japan (1603-1868 CE) or New Kingdom in Ancient Egypt (1550-1069 BCE).
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Other art movements are defined by the style of painting, such as art nouveau (1890-1920) or Expressionism (1890-1939). These art movements were only possible because of creative minds behind the paintings.
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There are many famous painters from all around the world and across history. The following is a selection of painters known for their innovation and technical application in their paintings.
Leonardo da Vinci was an Italian painter and savant from the Renaissance period, who is most well known for his use of tonal graduation, emotive gestures, innovative composition, and detailed knowledge in anatomy. His paintings are some of the most influential and recognizable in the world, with his works including the Mona Lisa and the Last Supper.
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Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio was an Italian painter who was influential in inspiring Baroque Era (1590-1740) for his realism in human expression and most famously in his use of dramatic contrasted lighting. Caravaggio's paintings are categorized with extreme contrast of dark shadows and bright beams of light in order to create dramatic scenes. Caravaggio's use of light influenced future Baroque artists like Peter Paul Rubens and Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn, and created the style of tenebrism or focus on dramatic illumination.
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Johannes Vermeer was a Dutch painter who was a later Baroque artist, having painted in the mid-seventeenth century, which is known as the Golden Age of Dutch Art. He is most well known for his use of lighting, which contrasted Caravaggio in that Vermeer used graduation in lighting in order to create more realistic and intimate scenes. The simple soft focus of the lighting allowed Vermeer to show off his knowledge in how lighting changes the perception of objects and colors. This suited the domestic tranquility and intimacy of his subject matter.
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Vincent van Gogh is one of the most, if not the most, famous Post-Impressionist painters beating Paul Cezanne and Paul Gauguin. This was not always the case, and during his lifetime van Gogh languished in obscurity as he only sold one painting despite creating over nine hundred paintings. Van Gogh is another Dutch artist, like Vermeer, however he focused on capturing the movement and expression. His style consisted of vivid pigmented color, contoured forms, and an emphasis on his brushwork which created dynamic color and line work. This dynamic and expressive art style contrasted with the isolation and mental struggles of van Gogh's personal life, creating the mythos of the unappreciated genius that has spurred the art community to find and uplift artists in order to not loss another van Gogh.
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Pablo Picasso was a Spanish painter who co-founded Cubism and is considered one of the most influential artists of the early twentieth century. Picasso's work evolved from a classically trained background to further and further abstraction. He experimented with many styles, but overall his use of color for expression and heavily contoured forms lead to the Cubist movement. Despite his increasing abstraction, Picasso always drew upon real world objects, which leads to distorted but recognizable subject matter in his art. He didn't reference the objects however, relying on his memory or imagination. His portraiture mainly portrayed individuals who personally impacted his life, leading to an autobiographical context to most of his paintings.
Jackson Pollock was an American painter who led the Abstract Expressionism movement in the United States in the mid-twentieth century. Pollock is most known for his technique of drip or splash paint onto a horizontal surface, which is a style known as an action painting. By having the canvas horizontal, Pollock was able to paint and view his artwork from any angle. His paint application technique creates a purely abstract form, with no clear emphatic focus, however tons of energy. This style gave him immense commercial success and controversy, as some appreciated the pure violent expression during the creation of these paintings while others viewed it as crass and meaningless. His work continues to represent an unique American art style that still provokes debate to this very day.
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A painting is an artwork where paint is applied to a solid surface, typically 2-dimensional. A painting can be any kind of style, reflecting the painter's emotions and ideas. This is accomplished through use of color, texture, shapes, lines, and tone. There are numerous forms of painting, depending on the material the paint is applied to. Some forms of paintings are mural, easel, panel, miniature, and scroll. Modern paintings attempt to blur the line between paintings and other works of art with a use of 3-dimensional canvas or objects added to the painting.
The art forms of painting refer to the subject and techniques of the painting. Some art forms are realism, surrealism, impressionism, modernism, and abstract art. These art forms evolved over time, starting with figurative art found in cave paintings. The earliest cave paintings are found in the Chauvet Cave that date to around 35,000 years ago. Subject matter evolved from religious and narrative imagery to depicting history, to depicting mundane reality, to depicting emotion or ideas. These evolutions in painting are due to the innovations of artists. Some of the most famous artists in the world are Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio, Johannes Vermeer, Vincent van Gogh, Pablo Picasso, and Jackson Pollock.
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Video Transcript
Painting: Definition & Types
What is a painting? In essence, does it refer to a visual composition of oil on a cloth canvas surface? Actually, the term can be applied more broadly than that.
Ask a critic to define the art of painting. He or she will inevitably linger on the question of form. In art, a medium, such as musical composition, can be broken down into smaller categories based on form, such as a song or an opera. In this example, the musical composition is the medium, and the song is the artistic expression's particular form. But also consider how the meaning expressed in a song might have come across if the artist had chosen a different form, like a written poem, for example.
The definition of painting is also a matter of form. Is a painting realistic or abstract? Does it use organic or geometric forms? Is the subject a landscape or a person, and does it fall in a particular genre, like surrealism? Was the paint applied using a brush or sponge, or was it splattered and tossed in artistic action? These are questions that can help you understand the form of a painting. So what is it that unites the field of painting?
The defining aspects that unite all works of art under the category of painting include the use of certain materials. This means that a painting is usually defined as consisting of some kind of paint applied to some kind of surface, usually a flat, two-dimensional canvas. But that doesn't mean that the only works of art considered painting will be those made of oil paint on cloth canvas. In the broadest sense, graffiti is a kind of painting because it's made with paint - aerosol spray paint - applied to a flat surface, like a wall or slab of pavement.
There are a variety of types of paints often used, like tempera, acrylic, watercolor and fresco. The possibilities of what medium to apply paint to range from paper, to wood, to leather and more.
History of Painting
Painting is one of the oldest art forms. When societies began crafting tools and making fire, they were also learning to represent the world in pictures. These pictures were recorded in cave paintings that still exist today. Some of the oldest paintings known to exist can be found in the Chauvet Cave in France.
The art of painting evolved over time, through the hieroglyphics of ancient civilizations to the classical and Renaissance paintings that hang in the Louvre today. The art of painting has taken some radical turns, with modern forms of painting including color field and action painting.
Famous Painters
Let's look at six famous painters whose works represent a broad spectrum across the history of painting:
Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519) was a Renaissance inventor, artist and painter. Da Vinci's style was copied and improved upon by later artists, which stands as a testament to this true innovator; imitation is the highest form of flattery. In works such as the Mona Lisa, Virgin on the Rocks and The Last Supper, Da Vinci drew on his knowledge of physiology to depict the human form as accurately as possible. Many of his paintings depict biblical settings and religious imagery.
Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio (1571-1610) was also an Italian painter whose works represent the Baroque period. He is known for painting with chiaroscuro, a style of lighting a scene in high contrast with deep, dark shadows. Like da Vinci, Caravaggio also painted biblical scenes. However, unlike his predecessors, he shone them in a more realistic light to reveal their humanity. Supper at Emmaus, for example, depicts Jesus as a man, eating and drinking with his disciples.
A Dutch painter, Jan Vermeer (1632-1675) is known for his immaculate depictions of everyday settings, including both working class and upper class life. Art historians praise Vermeer's paintings like The Music Lesson and The Milkmaid for the way he caught the sun shining through a window onto his subjects. With such vivid colors and detail, his paintings look almost like they're photographed.
Also from the Netherlands, Vincent van Gogh's Starry Night has become synonymous with the late 19th century impressionists, a style that sought as much to convey a sense of emotion through color as it did to paint a pretty picture. van Gogh (1853-1890) who suffered from mental illness, painted a self-portrait late in life that shows his self-mutilated ear.
The influence of Spanish painter Pablo Picasso (1881-1973) on the development of 20th century art cannot be overestimated. His works were among the first to experiment with abstract forms and non-representational compositions. Picasso and his contemporaries, including Matisse and Dali, redefined the meaning of painting and representation.
None other than Jackson Pollock (1912-1956) epitomizes the dramatic changes that painting styles underwent in the 20th century. An extreme example of abstract art, Pollock's action painting aimed not to depict a recognizable scene or object but rather the act of artistic production itself.
Lesson Summary
The definition of a painting relates to its form rather than its style or technique. The application of paint onto a surface unites the form of painting. That is to say, graffiti art and oil painting are both considered types of painting.
Painting is one of the oldest arts, reaching back to prehistoric times. The art evolved through the ancient world and the Renaissance and reached new levels of sophistication in the Baroque period with the developments of different ways of representing light. Twentieth century departures from realistic representation, as found in the works of Picasso and Pollock, explored different modes of expression, including abstraction and action painting.
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Painting | Definition, Forms & History
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