The 10 Best Oil Paint Sets

Oil paintings dating as far back as the year 650 C.E. have been found in caves in Afghanistan. Unfortunately, little is known about these paintings and their discovery is relatively recent. The modern history of oil painting begins in Europe in the 1100s. Though it is now revered for its use in art, it wasn't until the 15th century that artists started using oil as a standalone painting medium. Until that point, oil was mostly used to varnish wood and add a protective seal to tempera paintings, in order to help them last longer. It was also used to add details to compositions made primarily of tempera, as well as to add decorative touches to homes and furniture.

By the end of the middle ages and the beginning of the Renaissance in Europe, naturalism was becoming the preferred artistic style. Quick-drying, water-based tempera paints were less well-suited to accurate depictions of the real world, so artists turned to oil as an alternative. Natural oils like linseed dry quite slowly, and allow for far more ongoing manipulation as an artist works to complete an image. This gives the artist more time to finesse wet layers of paint into more accurately detailed representations of reality.

By the 1500s, oil painting had become the norm in Europe. The techniques and materials used then remain largely unchanged in artistic applications to this day. Essentially, pigments suspended in oil are applied to canvas, wood, or other materials, and manipulated with solvents like turpentine which thin the paint, making it less viscous. Many credit Flemish painter Jan van Eyck with inventing this technique, though he was more likely just a major proponent of it, since oil's use in painting predates him. He did, however, develop highly advanced skills in the medium, pioneering the wet-on-wet on-canvas mixing technique that remains popular today.

Another Flemish-trained painter, Antonello da Messina, is often credited with having introduced oil paint to Italy, though this is also unlikely. He was, however, the first artist to add lead oxide to his paint mixtures, which significantly improved the quality of dried oil paint. Until then, the surfaces of oil paintings would often crack as they cured. Lead oxide also improved the consistency of the paint itself. These advancements were later improved upon by Leonardo da Vinci, who added beeswax to the mixture, which prevents the paint from darkening as it dries.

The medium remained relatively unchanged from the 1500s until 1841, when an American portrait painter named John Goffe Rand invented the tin paint tube. Before then, paint was typically stored in pig bladders and glass syringes. The patent for the paint tube was quickly purchased by William Winsor of leading paint company Winsor & Newton. The company added a screw cap to the invention and began marketing it widely for their wet watercolor paints, though other companies used similar tubes to mass-produce and distribute oil paints throughout the rest of the 19th century, as they continue to do today.

Aside from improving the availability and consistency of oil paints, the paint tube also allowed artists more flexibility. Famed French artist Pierre-Auguste Renoir once said that "Without tubes of paint, there would have been no Impressionism." In addition to expanding the range of achievable painting techniques, paint tubes also enabled artists to more easily travel with their tools, and produce true-to-life depictions of the outdoors.

Today, oil paint is occasionally used on outdoor wood and metal furnishings due to its ability to repel water and withstand wear without losing its vibrancy.