The Macchiaioli of Tuscany, James Whistler, Georges Seurat and the Australian Impressionists all like to sketch in oil on cigar boxes.
Whistler
Painting using a palette knife, by Courbet, Renoir and Anna Althea Hills. fingerpainting by Leonardi, and ling brushes in the hands of Whistler and Sorolla.
The first modern synthetic pigment, from 1704. Adopted by Canaletto, Hogarth and many others since, and still offered in many paint ranges.
Paintings by Hogarth, Whistler, Lucy Rossetti, Orchardson, Elihu Vedder, Dagnan-Bouveret, Bonnard, and Willian McGregor Paxton.
Although of ancient origin, it took 7 centuries for Europeans to use them to cover the floor. They can be exotic in chinoiserie, luxuriant, worn and threadbare, or vibrant.
Paintings by Pieter Bruegel the Elder, Aelbert Cuyp, van Ruisdael, Caspar Wolf, Jongkind, Whistler and others of ice on rivers, canals, lakes and the sea. Brrrr.
From the Dutch Golden Age onwards, they’ve become fashionable for a while. Examples from Whistler, Turner, Kuindzhi, van Gogh, and others.
When to paint looking into the rising or setting sun, or when to put your back to the sun to show its light cast on a mountain peak.
Paintings by JMW Turner, Clarkson Stanfield, William Dyce, John Brett, Whistler, Berthe Morisot and others.
From the burning brands and oil lamps of the Greeks and Romans, to the soft light of candles, then in the 19th century came gaslights.
The Eclectic Light Company 