Gouache Painting
Visual Arts Guide

Nu Bleu II (Blue Nude) (1952),
by French Post-Impressionist
and Fauvist Henri Matisse: one
of the world's most famous
gouache images.

Gouache

Gouache is a fine art term which describes a type of paint consisting of pigment combined (like watercolours) with gum arabic. Unlike watercolour painting, however, gouache contains chalk to make it opaque and more reflective. Artists can use additives (eg. acrylic, honey or starch) to make it dry more slowly. It is thinned with water (or liquid glue to retain tonality) before being applied (with hog-hair or sable brushes) to white or tinted paper, card or silk.

Advantages

There are four advantages of using Gouache. First, being opaque, it covers brushstrokes or other marks. Second, it dries very quickly in a matt finish. A feature exploited by plein air painters who need to work faster than studio artists.

Christ in the Neighbourhood
(1935), a gouache painting by
Georges Rouault.

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Third, it can be applied in differing thicknesses, ranging from ultra-thin to impasto. Last, gouache comes in a variety of colours including fluorescent and metallic pigments. As a painting medium, it is especially useful in preparatory studies for acrylic and oil paintings, and for graphic art in posters, comic illustrations, comics, and other design art work.

History

Like watercolours, the use of Gouache dates from ancient Greek art. It was a characteristic medium of Indian and Islamic miniatures from the twelfth century onwards, and appeared in Europe from 1300 - often in Western screen and fan decorations. Gouache is not a heavily used medium, although - like watercolours - it is resorted to by most artists for certain types of painting or effect.

Modern exponents of gouache include the French colourist Henri Matisse who used it to execute his series of Nu Bleu (Blue Nudes). Other practitioners include French painter Georges Rouault, the Swiss pioneer of Modernism Paul Klee, and the French naif artist Jean Dubuffet.

Famous Irish artists who worked in gouache, among other media, include: the surrealist Francis Bacon, the watercolourists Letitia Hamilton and Mildred Anne Butler, and the still life master William Scott, to name but a few.

• For facts about painting types, styles and history, see: Fine Art Painting.
• For details of oil, watercolour and acrylic artists in Ireland, see: Guide to Irish Art

• How to Update This Mini Review of Gouache