油画

• Pinyin: yóu huà
• Hanzi breakdown: 油 = 氵+ 由 (liquid + phonetic — oil); 画 = 聿 + 田 + 凵 (brush + field + boundary — to draw, paint)

Meaning

Oil painting; a painting created with pigments suspended in oil, typically on canvas. Also refers to the technique itself.

Oil painting was introduced to China from Europe in the sixteenth century by Jesuit missionaries and became established as a serious art form in the twentieth century. Key terms: 油画技法 (oil painting techniques), 油画布 (canvas), 写实油画 (realist oil painting), 抽象油画 (abstract oil painting). Chinese oil painting has developed distinct national characteristics blending Western technique with Chinese aesthetic sensibilities.

Examples

1. 这幅中国油画以写实笔法描绘四十年代农村苦难，成为一份沉重的历史见证。 This Chinese oil painting uses realist techniques to portray rural suffering in the 1940s and becomes a heavy historical witness.
2. 这所美院的油画系从模仿苏联风格，逐步走向融合西方现代主义与中国美学。 The academy's oil painting department moved from imitating Soviet style to gradually blending Western modernism with Chinese aesthetics.
3. 在当代艺术中，油画的肌理、叠色和裂纹越来越被看作表达意义的重要媒介。 In contemporary art, the texture, layered color, and cracks of oil painting are increasingly seen as important media for expression.

Usage Guide

Context: art, culture, history, aesthetics

Tone: neutral

Do Say

• 这位华裔油画家把中国山水的空间感与西方油画的光影结合，形成独特风格。(This Chinese-born oil painter combines the spatial sense of Chinese landscape painting with the light and shadow of Western oil painting, creating a distinctive style.)
• 这场国家美术馆回顾展按时间梳理中国油画百年发展，从留洋写实到当代探索，一目了然。(This retrospective at the National Art Museum traces a hundred years of Chinese oil painting development in time order, from overseas realist influence to contemporary exploration, making the whole history clear at a glance.)

Don't Say

• 他用油画画了一幅素描 — 油画 and 素描 (sketch/drawing) are distinct media; one cannot make a 素描 using 油画 technique; use 他用铅笔画了一幅素描 or 他画了一幅油画肖像 to keep the medium consistent

Origin & History

油 (oil — 氵water/liquid + 由 phonetic; liquid extracted from plants or animals) + 画 (painting/to paint — 聿 writing brush + 田 field + 凵 boundary; a brush marking out fields, hence to draw/paint)

Cultural Context

Era: Modern

Generation: All ages

Social background: Universal