Oleograph

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A type of artistic print that mimics the color and texture of oil paintings through lithographic methods
2. A print created to resemble the texture and colors of an oil painting by using specialized printing techniques
3. An artwork produced by lithography that aims to closely replicate the appearance of an oil-painted canvas

Etymology: Oleograph is a compound of two parts: "oleo-", from Latin "oleum" meaning oil, and "-graph", from Greek "graphein" meaning to write or draw. Put together, the name simply describes a picture made to look like oil. The process was a lithographic one. Printers used stone or metal plates inked in many colours, and the finished sheet was often varnished or otherwise treated so that its surface took on the glossy brushwork and texture of an oil painting. Oleographs were cheap reproductions of paintings and hung in ordinary homes, which is why the term carries a slightly humble, imitative sense today. The word's meaning is therefore literal: an "oil" in name and appearance, but a printed "drawing" in fact.