For the majority of the Renaissance, artists took great care to prepare their canvases for the application of oil paints. Light touches were added to prepped canvas sheets to give them a glossy, sleek look. Oil paints were then added to these canvases to create a non-textured appearance. The end result were paintings that looked like photographs of reality.

Oil painters have employed numerous oils over the years, including poppyseed oil, safflower oil, linseed oil, walnut oil, and even obscure media, like rapeseed oil. Oil-based painting, as a form, probably began when kings and noblemen asked artisans to decorate shields for battle. Craftsmen quickly discovered that water-based paints washed off upon exposure to the elements. Thus, they began employing linseed oil and powdered pigments to colorize the weaponry.

During the early 19th century, Western European artistic movements became preoccupied with creating extremely realistic depictions of historical scenes, religious icons, and portraits of noblemen. The artisans of the time employed oils sparingly and worked assiduously to prevent mixing between different layers. This cautious attitude was summarily rejected in the 1860s by the Impressionists, who emerged from relative obscurity to change the course of art history.

These artists, like Claude Monet, Edgar Degas, Cézanne, and Renoir, threw gobs of oil paint onto their canvases with reckless brushstrokes. They even piled oil strokes on top of other oil strokes before drying was complete. The resulting colorful, open depictions won wide condemnation from many critics of the time, but inspired subsequent generations of oil painters to experiment fully with the medium.