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Art & Art History vocabulary · Materials & Techniques

Canvas

Meaning in art & art history, with examples

/ˈkænvəs/nounCore term

In art & art history, canvas means: A strong woven cloth, usually cotton or linen, stretched over a wooden frame and used as a surface for painting; also a painting made on it.

In Turkish: tuval, kanvas, tuval bezi

How it is used

Painters stretch, prime and paint on canvas, and museum labels say ‘oil on canvas’. Canvas can also mean the painting itself: a large canvas, his late canvases. Before canvas became common in the sixteenth century, many artists painted on wooden panels.

Example sentences

  1. The label says ‘oil on canvas, 1889’.

  2. She works on huge canvases, some of them four metres wide.

Common collocations

  • oil on canvas
  • stretch a canvas
  • prime a canvas
  • a large canvas
  • blank canvas
  • oil paintPaint made by mixing pigments with a drying oil, usually linseed oil; it dries slowly, so artists can blend colours and build up layers.
  • paintingA picture made by putting paint on a surface such as canvas, wood or a wall; also the art or activity of making such pictures.
  • mediumThe material or technique an artist uses to make a work, such as oil paint, bronze, video or photography; also a liquid added to paint to change how it behaves.
  • acrylic paintA fast-drying, water-based paint made with a plastic binder; it can be thinned with water but becomes water-resistant when dry.

More terms: Materials & Techniques

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