verdaille

verdaille

English

Pietro Rotrai, a. 1762, painting of a young woman in verdaille

Etymology

Compare French vert (“green”), as well as English grisaille or brunaille, from French.

Noun

verdaille (countable and uncountable, plural verdailles)

1. (uncommon, art) A method of painting or other work which employs only varying shades of green, or work executed with this method.
   • 2006, Maria Gordon-Smith, Pillement, page 51:

     Unless the work of a skilled imitator, Pillement also executed an oil painting in monochromatic shades of olive green, called “Verdaille”, featuring a smaller procession of figures riding on elephants.

   • 2012 June 27, Sheila Singhal, “Elephant No. 269: Verdaille”, in An Elephant a Day‎:

     Verdaille is a painting created entirely in green. Unlike other colourwork, in which a single hue is either tinted in lighter tones or shaded into darker tones, verdaille can involve many different hues.