Where did we get the saying “he is no oil painting”?
It is supposed to infer that the subject is not good-looking…perhaps on the weaker side of average. I went and looked at oil paintings on Google Images just now. I couldn’t find any good-looking people in any of them…even Botticelli’s women are a little frumpy looking...very womanly but certainly "no oil paintings".
I think we should retire the saying – maybe find a more modern example. “She is no Fashion TV”…perhaps.
Thoughts welcome.
2 comments:
ummmm
If I had to hazard a guess, I'd say that originally oil paintings were the preserve of the wealthy, as they were the only ones that could afford to commission portraits - I remember reading somewhere that the artists, wanting to please their patrons, would be rather indulgent when painting. So, the subjects would often end up looking rather more attractive than they actually were. Hence, something beautiful being likened to an oil painting. No way of proving it, but that's my guess.
just makes me think they must have been ugly as sin then...given that the final result was generally not that pretty...
R :)
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