Underpainting is the foundational layer beneath a painting's surface. Learn about grisaille, verdaccio, dead coloring, and how Vermeer and Rembrandt used it.
Vermeer's Woman Holding a Balance looks like it was painted in one go. It was not. Beneath the refined surface of the finished painting, chemical imaging has revealed a forceful, freely brushed underpaint that is strikingly different in character from the final image. The underpaint established the play of light and shadow, planned the colors of the composition, and built the physical structure of the forms in low relief. Vermeer then covered this rough underlayer with the smooth, finished surface we see today. The painting we admire is built on a foundation we cannot see.
Underpainting is the initial layer of paint applied to a prepared support before the final surface layers. It establishes the composition, values, and sometimes colors of the painting, serving as a structural foundation that the artist builds upon. Underpainting can be monochrome, as in grisaille, or colored, as in dead coloring. It can be detailed and precise or rough and suggestive. In every case, its function is the same: to solve the problems of composition, value, and form before the artist commits to the final surface.
This entry covers what underpainting is, its different types and historical names, how artists from the Renaissance to the Baroque used it, and what technical research has revealed about the hidden layers beneath famous paintings.
Underpainting is the first painted layer on a prepared canvas or panel. It sits on top of the ground, which is the priming layer applied to the support, and beneath the final paint layers that constitute the visible image. The underpainting establishes the tonal structure of the composition: where the lights, darks, and mid-tones will be. In some traditions, it also establishes the color scheme. In others, it is purely monochrome, and color is applied entirely in subsequent layers.
The purpose of underpainting is practical. By working out the composition in a single color or limited palette, the painter can focus on value relationships without the complexity of color. Once the underpainting is dry, the final layers can be applied with confidence, because the structural decisions have already been made. This is especially important in indirect painting methods that use glazing, where transparent color layers are built over an opaque tonal foundation. Without a solid underpainting, glazed colors lack depth and structure.
A 2023 study published in the Journal of Historians of Netherlandish Art used chemical imaging techniques to reveal Vermeer's underpaint in Woman Holding a Balance and A Lady Writing, both at the National Gallery of Art in Washington. The research showed that Vermeer's underpaint was surprisingly free and robust, with forceful brushwork that contrasts sharply with the refined surface of the finished paintings. The underpaint established the play of light and shadow, planned the colors, and built the physical structure of the composition in low relief. Read the full study at JHNA.
Grisaille is underpainting executed entirely in shades of grey, from white through black. It was the standard underpainting method in much of European oil painting from the Renaissance through the 19th century. The grisaille establishes the full tonal range of the composition, and subsequent glazes of transparent color are applied over it. The effect is like coloring a black-and-white photograph: the values are already correct, and the glazes add hue without altering the tonal structure. Grisaille was also used as a finished technique in its own right, often for decorative schemes or as a cost-effective substitute for sculpture.
Verdaccio is a greenish underpainting used specifically for flesh tones. The greenish base, typically mixed from black, yellow ochre, and a red earth, creates a cool foundation over which warm flesh colors are applied. The contrast between the cool green underpainting and the warm pink surface layers produces a luminosity in flesh that a grey or brown underpainting cannot achieve. Verdaccio was common in Italian Renaissance painting, particularly in fresco, and is still used by some contemporary portrait painters working in traditional methods.
In 17th-century Dutch painting, the first painted layer was called "doodverwen," meaning dead coloring. This was a monochrome or limited-color underpainting that established the composition and tonal structure. The term "dead" refers to the absence of full color, not to the subject matter. A 2025 study published in the Journal of Historians of Netherlandish Art described the three phases of the 17th-century Dutch painting process: the underdrawing or dead color phase, the "working up" (opwerken) phase, and the retouching (retockeren) phase that reinforced highlights and deep tones. Read the study at JHNA.
Some painters used colored underpainting rather than monochrome. Rubens used a streaky, brownish-gray imprimatura as a colored ground and then set up his composition with thin brown paint directly on top. The colored ground acted as a midtone, sitting between the highlights and shadows. This approach is faster than grisaille because the ground provides the midtone and the painter only needs to add lights and darks.
Underpainting is as old as oil painting itself. The practice of establishing a tonal foundation before applying color was standard in Early Netherlandish painting, where a detailed grisaille underpainting was built up on a white ground before transparent color glazes were applied. This method produced the luminous, jewel-like surfaces of Van Eyck and Rogier van der Weyden.
In Italy, the tradition developed differently. Italian painters working in tempera used underdrawing in green earth (verdaccio) for flesh tones, a practice that carried over into oil painting when the medium spread south of the Alps in the 15th century. A 2024 dissertation from the University of Delaware reexamined the early development of oil painting during the Quattrocento, demonstrating that the transition from egg tempera to oil involved significant changes in underpainting practice. Italian painters who adopted oil had to adapt their traditional underpainting methods to the new medium. Read the dissertation at UDSpace.
In the 17th-century Netherlands, underpainting practices became increasingly sophisticated. A 2025 study published in the Journal of Historians of Netherlandish Art examined the "hidden revolution" of colored grounds in Netherlandish painting between 1580 and 1620. The research showed that the rise of colored grounds, which functioned as a form of underpainting, was one of the most significant technical innovations of the period. Painters like Rembrandt used gray-over-red double grounds on canvas, where a first reddish layer of ochre and earth pigments was covered by a second gray layer based on lead white. The gray layer acted as a midtone, and the red layer showed through where the gray was thin or absent. Read the study at JHNA.
The 2023 National Gallery study revealed that Vermeer's underpaint was strikingly different from his finished surface. The underpaint for Woman Holding a Balance used forceful, freely brushed strokes of lead white and dark brown to establish the play of light and shadow. The underpaint also planned the colors of the composition, with passages of thicker paint modeling the forms in low relief. This hidden layer was robust and physical, contrasting with the smooth, refined surface that Vermeer applied on top. Read the findings at JHNA.
Rembrandt used underpainting as part of a three-stage process. The dead color phase established the composition and tonal structure. The working up phase developed the forms and colors. The retouching phase reinforced highlights and deep tones. A 2025 study as part of Operation Night Watch used optical coherence tomography to measure impasto heights up to 850 micrometers in The Night Watch, revealing that Rembrandt built up the textured surface of Van Ruytenburch's embroidery with multiple lead white underpaint layers. Read the study at Nature.
Rubens used a streaky, brownish-gray imprimatura on his panels, particularly for oil sketches. He set up his compositions with thin brown paint directly on the colored ground, using the ground tone as a midtone. His unfinished Henry IV at the Battle of Ivry shows this process clearly: the main shapes are indicated in thin brown paint over the gray ground, with the ground acting as a midtone between rough indications of highlights and shadows.
Leonardo's underpainting served as the foundation for his sfumato. X-ray fluorescence analysis of seven Leonardo paintings in the Louvre revealed a base layer of approximately 1% vermilion and 99% lead white, over which he applied dozens of thin glazes to create the soft tonal transitions that define his style. The underpainting provided the opaque, light-reflecting foundation that made the transparent glazes effective. Read the study at Wiley.
You cannot usually see underpainting directly, because it is covered by the final paint layers. But you can infer its presence and character through certain signs. In paintings where the final layers are thin or transparent, the underpainting may show through, especially in areas where the surface paint has become more transparent with age. In paintings with visible brushwork, the direction and structure of the surface strokes often reveal the underpainting beneath, because the painter built on the forms established in the initial layer.
X-radiography is the primary tool for revealing underpainting. X-rays pass through paint layers differently depending on the pigments used, and heavy pigments like lead white show up as bright areas in an X-ray image. Many museums now publish X-ray images of their paintings alongside the visible surface, allowing you to compare the two. The National Gallery in London and the National Gallery of Art in Washington both have extensive technical research programs that have revealed the underpainting of many paintings in their collections.
Underpainting is the foundation of indirect painting. It is covered by glazing, which applies transparent color layers over the opaque tonal foundation. It sits on top of the imprimatura, the toned ground that is applied to the support before painting begins. The opposite approach to underpainting is alla prima painting, which skips the underpainting stage entirely and works wet-on-wet in a single session. For more on how these techniques fit together, read our post on oil painting techniques.
Since underpainting is hidden beneath the surface, the best way to appreciate it is through museum publications and technical studies that publish X-ray and infrared images. The National Gallery of Art in Washington has published extensive research on Vermeer's underpainting, available through their website. The Rijksmuseum's Operation Night Watch project has published detailed technical findings on Rembrandt's painting process, including his underpainting layers.
For unfinished paintings that show underpainting directly, look for Rubens's oil sketches at the Prado in Madrid or the National Gallery in London. These works were never finished, so the underpainting and early layers are visible. For more on the creative process, read our guide to reading a painting, or explore our entries on glazing and imprimatura.
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