Editing Painterliness

{{Short description|Concept in art history}}
{{Refimprove|date=September 2010}}

[[File:Frans Hals - Malle Babbe - Google Art Project.jpg|thumb|[[Frans Hals]],
 ''[[Malle Babbe]]'', about 1633, [[Gemäldegalerie, Berlin]]]]

[[File:Matisse - Vase of Sunflowers (1898).jpg|thumb|[[Henri Matisse]], ''Vase of Sunflowers'', 1898–99, [[State Hermitage Museum]] [[Saint Petersburg, Russia]]]]

[[File:Eugenie Baizerman - Mother and Child c 1949.jpg|thumb|[[Eugenie Baizerman]], ''Mother and Child'', c. 1949]]

'''Painterliness''' is a concept based on '''''{{langx|de|malerisch}}''''' ('painterly'), a word popularized by Swiss [[art historian]] [[Heinrich Wölfflin]] (1864–1945) to help focus, enrich and standardize the terms being used by art historians of his time to characterize [[Work of art|works of art]].

A painting is said to be ''painterly'' when there are visible [[Brush#Paintbrushes|brushstroke]]s in the final work – the result of applying paint in a manner that is not entirely controlled, generally without closely following carefully drawn lines. Any painting media – oils, acrylics, watercolors, gouache, etc. – can produce either linear or painterly work. Some artists whose work could be characterized as painterly are [[Pierre Bonnard]], [[Francis Bacon (artist)|Francis Bacon]], [[Vincent van Gogh]], [[Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn|Rembrandt]], [[Pierre-Auguste Renoir|Renoir]], [[John Singer Sargent]], and [[Andrew Wyeth]] (his early watercolors). The [[Impressionism|Impressionists]], [[Fauvism|Fauvists]] and the [[Abstract Expressionism|Abstract Expressionists]] tended strongly to be painterly.

Painterly art often makes use of the many visual effects produced by paint on canvas, such as chromatic progression, warm and cool tones, [[Color wheel|complementary and contrasting colors]], broken tones, broad brushstrokes, [[Sketch (drawing)|sketchiness]], and [[impasto]].

==Linear art==
The opposite of painterly is ''linear'', ''plastic'' or ''formal linear'' design.<ref>For further clarification of the meaning of ''malerisch'' read ''Francis Bacon: Logic of Sensation'' by [[Gilles Deleuze]].</ref>
''Linear'' could describe the painting of artists such as [[Sandro Botticelli|Botticelli]], [[Michelangelo]], and [[Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres|Ingres]], whose works depend on creating the illusion of a degree of [[three-dimensional]]ity by means of "modeling the form" through skillful drawing, shading, and an academic (rather than impulsive) use of color. Contour and pattern are more the province of linear artists, while dynamism is the most common painterly trait.

==Other usage==
Although ''painterly'' generally refers to a certain use of paint in art, it happens that some forms of [[sculpture]] make use of apparently random surface effects which, if not exactly resembling brushstrokes, contain the traits of painterliness.<ref>{{cite book |last=Wölfflin |first=Heinrich |year=2012 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=pjwhZxy7fYAC&pg=PA54 |title=Principles of Art History |publisher=Courier Dover Publications |page=54 |isbn=9780486141763}}</ref> The application of the term  outside the realm of painting may help the viewer, or listener, experience more deeply the significance of [[Auguste Rodin]]'s surfaces or [[Richard Strauss]]'s flow of chromatic harmonies.

More recently, "painterly" is used to describe computer software, especially mobile apps, designed to create special effects on photographs, mimicking recognizable artistic media such as oils, watercolors, Japanese woodcuts, etc., or based on individual styles like [[van Gogh]], [[Monet]], and so on. The resulting photographs, once transformed, are also called "painterly".<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://iphonephotographyschool.com/painterly-apps/|title = 5 Best Painting Apps That Turn Your iPhone Photos into Paintings|date = 21 May 2019}}</ref>

==See also==
*[[Expressionism]]
*[[Abstract expressionism]]
*[[Flatness (art)]]
*[[Tachisme]]
*[[Action painting]]
*[[Lyrical abstraction]]
*[[Neo-expressionism]]
*[[Western painting]]
*[[History of painting]]
*[[Painting]]
*[[Medium specificity]]

==Notes and references==
{{reflist}}

[[Category:Painting]]
[[Category:Concepts in aesthetics]]