grisaille

American  

[gri-zahy, -zeyl, gree-zah-y^uh] / grɪˈzaɪ, -ˈzeɪl, griˈzɑ yə /

noun

plural

grisailles

1. monochromatic painting in shades of gray.

2. a work of art, as a painting or stained-glass window, executed in grisaille.

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grisaille British  

/ ɡrizɑj, ɡrɪˈzeɪl /

noun

1. a technique of monochrome painting in shades of grey, as in an oil painting or a wall decoration, imitating the effect of relief

2. a painting, stained glass window, etc, in this manner

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Etymology

Origin of grisaille

1840–50; < French: painted in gray monotone, equivalent to gris gray + -aille noun suffix

Example Sentences

MFA’s example from that summer, “Three Boys on a Beached Dory,” is a charming grisaille work depicting the children, wearing broad-brimmed hats, looking at sailboats on the horizon.

From The Wall Street Journal • Dec. 11, 2025

Alongside Sigmar Polke, Blinky Palermo, Konrad Lueg and other students at the exuberant Kunstakademie Düsseldorf, he began painting deadpan figurative canvases in a sapped grisaille.

From New York Times • Mar. 5, 2020

Sterne’s work is a tall, abstracted cityscape in grisaille that looks, from a distance, drawn or somehow printed but, up close, reveals itself to be tenderly brushed.

From The New Yorker • Dec. 31, 2018

For example, I did a show in Berlin two years ago that was all grisaille — almost no color or very little color except red, black and white.

From Los Angeles Times • Oct. 3, 2018

In the ambulatory chapels on the north side of the choir, there are two complete windows of this period, both of them grisaille with gay heraldic devices and coloured borders.

From Stained Glass Tours in France by Sherrill, Charles Hitchcock