In two-dimensional works of art, such as

painting Painting is a Visual arts, visual art, which is characterized by the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a solid surface (called "matrix" or "Support (art), support"). The medium is commonly applied to the base with ...

printmaking Printmaking is the process of creating work of art, artworks by printing, normally on paper, but also on fabric, wood, metal, and other surfaces. "Traditional printmaking" normally covers only the process of creating prints using a hand proces ...

photography Photography is the visual arts, art, application, and practice of creating images by recording light, either electronically by means of an image sensor, or chemically by means of a light-sensitive material such as photographic film. It is empl ...

bas-relief Relief is a sculptural method in which the sculpted pieces remain attached to a solid background of the same material. The term ''relief'' is from the Latin verb , to raise (). To create a sculpture in relief is to give the impression that th ...

, ''repoussoir'' (, ''pushing back'') is an object along the right or left foreground that directs the viewer's eye into the composition by bracketing ( framing) the edge. It became popular with

Mannerist Mannerism is a style in European art that emerged in the later years of the Italian High Renaissance around 1520, spreading by about 1530 and lasting until about the end of the 16th century in Italy, when the Baroque style largely replaced it ...

and

Baroque The Baroque ( , , ) is a Western Style (visual arts), style of Baroque architecture, architecture, Baroque music, music, Baroque dance, dance, Baroque painting, painting, Baroque sculpture, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished from ...

artists, and is found frequently in Dutch seventeenth-century landscape paintings.

Jacob van Ruisdael Jacob Isaackszoon van Ruisdael (; 1629 – 10 March 1682) was a Dutch painter, draughtsman, and etcher. He is generally considered the pre-eminent landscape painter of the Dutch Golden Age, a period of great wealth and cultural achie ...

, for example, often included a tree along one side to enclose the scene (see illustration). Figures are also commonly employed as ''repoussoir'' devices by artists such as

Paolo Veronese Paolo Caliari (152819 April 1588), known as Paolo Veronese ( , ; ), was an Italian Renaissance painter based in Venice, known for extremely large history paintings of religion and mythology, such as ''The Wedding at Cana (Veronese), The Wedding ...

Peter Paul Rubens Sir Peter Paul Rubens ( ; ; 28 June 1577 – 30 May 1640) was a Flemish painting, Flemish artist and diplomat. He is considered the most influential artist of the Flemish Baroque painting, Flemish Baroque tradition. Rubens' highly charged comp ...

and

Impressionist Impressionism was a 19th-century art movement characterized by visible brush strokes, open Composition (visual arts), composition, emphasis on accurate depiction of light in its changing qualities (often accentuating the effects of the passage ...

s such as

Gustave Caillebotte Gustave Caillebotte (; 19 August 1848 – 21 February 1894) was a French painter who was a member and patron of the Impressionists, although he painted in a more Realism (arts), realistic manner than many others in the group. Caillebotte was kno ...

. File:Jacob Isaackszoon van Ruisdael - The Jewish Cemetery (1654 or 1655).jpg, Jacob Isaaksz. van Ruisdael, ''The Jewish Cemetery'' (1655–60, oil on canvas, 141 x 182.9 cm). The tree in the right-foreground of Ruisdael's painting is an example of ''repoussoir'' that pushes the viewer's eye into the composition. File:Peter Paul Rubens 118.jpg, ''The Four Philosophers'' (''c''. 1615. Oil on panel; 167 x 143 cm,

Pitti Palace The Palazzo Pitti (), in English sometimes called the Pitti Palace, is a vast, mainly Renaissance, palace in Florence, Italy. It is situated on the south side of the River Arno, a short distance from the Ponte Vecchio. The core of the present ...

Florence Florence ( ; ) is the capital city of the Italy, Italian region of Tuscany. It is also the most populated city in Tuscany, with 362,353 inhabitants, and 989,460 in Metropolitan City of Florence, its metropolitan province as of 2025. Florence ...

). In his friendship portrait of himself, his brother Philip Rubens,

Justus Lipsius Justus Lipsius (Joest Lips or Joost Lips; October 18, 1547 – March 23, 1606) was a Flemish Catholic philologist, philosopher, and humanist. Lipsius wrote a series of works designed to revive ancient Stoicism in a form that would be compatibl ...

and Jan van den Wouwer (left to right), the painter Rubens's

self-portrait Self-portraits are Portrait painting, portraits artists make of themselves. Although self-portraits have been made since the earliest times, the practice of self-portraiture only gaining momentum in the Early Renaissance in the mid-15th century ...

on the left is an example of a figural ''repoussoir'' that is further accentuated by the flowing red curtain. File:Gustave Caillebotte - Paris Street; Rainy Day - Google Art Project.jpg,

. ''

Paris Street; Rainy Day ''Paris Street; Rainy Day'' () is a large 1877 oil painting by the French artist Gustave Caillebotte (1848–1894), and is his best known work.Hagen, 624 It shows a number of individuals walking through the Place de Dublin, then known as the Carre ...

'' (1877,

Art Institute of Chicago The Art Institute of Chicago, founded in 1879, is one of the oldest and largest art museums in the United States. The museum is based in the Art Institute of Chicago Building in Chicago's Grant Park (Chicago), Grant Park. Its collection, stewa ...

). The rear-facing man on the right with the tilted umbrella is an example of ''repoussoir'' figure leading the viewer's gaze into the composition. File:Gray Weather, Grand Jatte (1888) - Georges Seurat (Metropolitan Museum of Art).jpg,

Georges Seurat Georges Pierre Seurat ( , ; ; 2 December 1859 – 29 March 1891) was a French post-Impressionist artist. He devised the painting techniques known as chromoluminarism and pointillism and used conté crayon for drawings on paper with a rough ...

, ''Gray Weather, Grande Jatte'' (1888, 71 × 66 cm, oil on canvas,

Metropolitan Museum of Art The Metropolitan Museum of Art, colloquially referred to as the Met, is an Encyclopedic museum, encyclopedic art museum in New York City. By floor area, it is the List of largest museums, third-largest museum in the world and the List of larg ...

). In a similar manner to the van Ruisdael piece, the tree that takes up the entire right edge of this work is an example of ''repoussoir.''

References

Artistic techniques Painting techniques Photographic techniques Composition in visual art {{art-technique-stub