Art is in the eye of the beholder – but sometimes the art you would dearly love to behold is only available in museums or private collections. Prints are one option to have the art work you love displayed in your home – but prints are flat objects and just don’t truly capture the brilliance and depth of the originals. This is how reproductions started to become popular. Despite what the movies may have you believe, art reproductions aren’t created to try and deceive anyone into believing they are viewing the original masterpiece. They are created in order to allow people to have their own hand-created close facsimile, with all the depth and detail, to behold in their own home.
Of course, recreating the Mona Lisa to hang in your living room isn’t the only reason why someone might look to use art reproduction services. Art reproduction can also create amazing oil paintings from photographs, meaning you could have an oil painting in classic style (or the style of your choosing) of your favorite moment, family portrait or even a beautiful landscape image you have captured.
A Quick Guide to Art Styles
When you’re looking at purchasing reproduction of a famous painting you generally know the artist name and painting name. However, if you are looking at commissioning an oil on canvas reproduction of a personal image it helps to know what style you would like it reproduced in. Also, if you are after a similar painting to one you either have or simply adore, knowing the style your artwork was created in will give you a good starting ground for finding similar pieces.
Baroque
An ornate and extravagant style that used warm colors with strong lighting contrast. Scenes and faces were full of emotion in this style that is generally considered to be from the 17th to 18th centuries. More information can be found at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baroque#Painting
More famous works from this period include:
• The Raising of the Cross by Peter Paul Rubens
• Girl with a Pearl Earring by Jan Vermeer Van Delft
• The Polish Rider by Rembrandt Van Rijn
• The Milkmaid by Jan Vermeer Van Delft
• Lion Hunt by Peter Paul Rubens
• St Joseph with the Infant Jesus by Guido Reni
Rococo
This late 1700s period emphasised highly ornamental and decorative styles with asymmetry and curves, also known for its sensuality. Artwork was designed to create a sense of awe.
More famous works from this period include:
• The Waltz by A. Zoffoli
• View of the Eruption of Mount Vesuvius by Pierre-Jacques Volaire
• The Rising of the Sun by François Boucher
• Hercules and Omphale by François Boucher
• Cyrus the Great before the bodies of Abradatus and Pantheus by Vicente Lopez y Portana
Impressionism
The impressionist style is artworks that use small, thin brush strokes that are quite separate and visible. This style followed on from the baroque period and flourished in the 1800s, using everyday subjects displayed with accurate depictions.
More famous works from this period include:
• Two Sisters Aka On The Terrace by Pierre Auguste Renoir
• Paris Street- Rainy Weather by Gustave Caillebotte
• Bouquet Of Sunflowers by Claude Oscar Monet
Romanticism
With an abundance of emotion and individualism the romantic period reached its peak in the mid-1800s. Many of the artworks depict a glorified version of historic events or depictions of medieval scenes, with an emphasis on showing strong emotions – particularly those of terror or awe; this included landscapes or scenes with horrific shipwrecks or destructive fires. The beauty of nature was shown at her most powerful, and often at her most deadly.
More famous works from this period include:
• Washington Crossing the Delaware by Nicolas-Bernard Lepicier
• The Wanderer above the Mists by Caspar David Friedrich
• The Kiss by Francesco Paolo Hayez
• The Nightmare by Johann Henry Fuseli
• Liberty Leading the People by Eugene Delacroix
• Father Christmas by Karl Roger
Post-Impressionism
Much of the artwork that fits into a post-impressionist style uses vivid colors but paint was applied to canvas thickly, and while these artworks from the late 1800s focused on real life they tended to distort their subjects to create a more geometric feel.
More famous works from this period include:
• Starry Night by Vincent Van Gogh
• The Card Players by Paul Cezanne
• Two Tahitian Women by Paul Gauguin
• Hamsa Damayanthi by Raja Ravi Varma
• Click here for more artists
Don’t Be Deceived
One of the things to be careful of when purchasing a reproduction is that you are indeed getting a hand-painted oil on canvas reproduction. Modern printing techniques have seen the development of digital prints sold as ‘oil paintings. Although they may have oil paint added to them, this is added on top of a digitally printed image to give a textured effect, it is not a genuine oil on canvas reproduction – check the reviews before you buy.
This was a very informative post. I was not aware that there were oils being added to digital paintings.
I really enjoyed reading this post and learned a lot. I have always been a big art lover and have to say I like pieces from each one of these periods. I really love the Impressionism period. Thank you for the information about digital prints being sold as oil paintings I had no idea about that.