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

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

Brian Adam Douglas’s “The Rain Dogs” is a grisaille, Social Realist-style painting of people piled up in a small boat, with rooftops slightly above floodwaters in the background.

From New York Times • Jul. 9, 2015

In coloured painted enamels the white is coloured by transparent enamels spread over the grisaille treatment, parts of which when fired are heightened by touches of gold, usually painted in lines.

From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 9, Slice 3 "Electrostatics" to "Engis" by Various