Oil painting reproductions are paintings that have been created by copying in oils an original oil painting by an artist. Oil painting reproductions are distinct from original oil painting such as are often of interest to collectors and

museums A museum ( ; plural museums or, rarely, musea) is a building or institution that cares for and displays a collection of artifacts and other objects of artistic, cultural, historical, or scientific importance. Many public museums make these ...

. Oil painting reproduction can, however, sometimes be regarded as artworks in themselves. Oil painting reproductions can be labeled with several different categories. * 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 are found since 16th century. Traditionally, students of the old masters 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, such as John Singer Sargent, Edgar Degas, and

Pablo Picasso Pablo Ruiz Picasso (25 October 1881 – 8 April 1973) was a Spanish painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramicist and Scenic design, theatre designer who spent most of his adult life in France. One of the most influential artists of the 20th ce ...

. Perhaps the most well known of all students who learned by reproduction was

Leonardo da Vinci Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci (15 April 14522 May 1519) was an Italian polymath of the High Renaissance who was active as a painter, Drawing, draughtsman, engineer, scientist, theorist, sculptor, and architect. While his fame initially res ...

. Beginning as an apprentice under the master sculptor and painter

Andrea Del Verrocchio Andrea del Verrocchio (, , ; – 1488), born Andrea di Michele di Francesco de' Cioni, was a sculptor, Italian painter and goldsmith who was a master of an important workshop in Florence. He apparently became known as ''Verrocchio'' after the ...

, 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 painting is the process of painting with pigments with a medium of drying oil as the binder. It has been the most common technique for artistic painting on wood panel or canvas for several centuries, spreading from Europe to the rest o ...

Oil on panel A panel painting is a painting made on a flat panel of wood, either a single piece or a number of pieces joined together. Until canvas became the more popular support medium in the 16th century, panel painting was the normal method, when not paint ...

* Oil on copper

Copyright issues

There are several issues related to

art forgery Art forgery is the creating and selling of works of art which are falsely credited to other, usually more famous artists. Art forgery can be extremely lucrative, but modern dating and analysis techniques have made the identification of forged art ...

and copyright violation that applies to the reproduction of oil paintings. The copyright laws varies from country to country but in the U.S. however there is no copyright infringement that applies to a painting 70 years after the death of its artist.

References

{{Reflist Painting Copying