Gold wall art: 12 paintings that shine
Gold leaf screens from Japan, Mughal manuscripts, Blake’s Last Supper and Moreau’s Venice: twelve paintings that glow with gold and golden light.
Gold is the oldest luxury in art. Painters in Japan, India and Renaissance Italy laid real gold leaf on screens, manuscripts and wedding chests so they would shimmer in candlelight. Later painters chased the same glow with golden light.
Here are twelve paintings that shine, in three groups: gold leaf and gilded screens, old gold and honey, and gold that glows in the dark. As prints they keep that warm glow, especially beside brass and lamplight.
Gold leaf and gilded screens
Pictures made with real gold leaf, from Japan and India.
1. The Procession to Ōhara
The Procession to Ōhara, early 17th century. Pair of six-panel folding screens; ink, color, gold and gold leaf on paper. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.
This pair of folding screens from the early 1600s tells a story from the Tale of the Heike, divided by clouds of gold leaf.
Gold leaf, pine green and ink.
2. Birds and Flowers
Kano Mitsunobu, Birds and Flowers, late 1500s. Pair of six-panel folding screens; ink, color, and gold on paper. Cleveland Museum of Art.
Kano Mitsunobu led the Kano painters in Kyoto in the late 1500s, when gold screens filled the castles of Japan’s warlords.
Burnished gold, moss and a touch of red.
3. Krishna and Balarma's Battle
Mughal painter, Krishna and Balarma's Battle, ca. 1590–95. Ink, opaque watercolor, and gold on paper. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.
This page comes from a Harivamsa made at the court of the Mughal emperor Akbar around 1590–95.
Pale gold, olive and saffron.
4. The Vizier’s Son and the Parrot
Lalu, The Vizier’s Son and the Parrot, c. 1560. Gum tempera, ink, and gold on paper. Cleveland Museum of Art.
Lalu painted this page of the Tuti-nama, the Tales of a Parrot, in Akbar’s studio around 1560.
Saffron gold, indigo and orange.
Old gold and honey
Softer, antique golds for living rooms and studies.
5. Venice
Gustave Moreau, Venice, by 1898.
Gustave Moreau painted Venice as a myth, a dreamlike bride of the sea in golden light.
Champagne gold and soft teal.
6. Still Life with Silver
Alexandre François Desportes, Still Life with Silver, 1720s. Oil on canvas. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.
Alexandre François Desportes, painter of the royal hunts in France, made this still life in the 1720s.
Antique gold, olive and silver.
7. Portrait of Claude Joseph Vernet
Alexander Roslin, Den franske konstnären Claude Joseph Vernet, 1767.
Swedish painter Alexander Roslin painted his friend, the French marine painter Vernet, in 1767.
Old gold, umber and cream.
8. Fidelity
Briton Rivière, Fidelity, 1869. Oil on canvas. Lady Lever Art Gallery, Port Sunlight.
Briton Rivière painted this tender picture of loyalty in 1869.
Straw gold and cream with a note of blue.
Gold that glows in the dark
Gold against deep shadow: the black and gold look.
9. The Last Supper
William Blake, The Last Supper, 1799.
William Blake painted this Last Supper in 1799 for his patron Thomas Butts.
Bright gold on near black: dramatic in a dining room.
10. Sita in the Garden of Lanka
Indian painter, Sita in the Garden of Lanka, c. 1725. Gum tempera, gold, and silver on paper. Cleveland Museum of Art.
This page of the Ramayana, painted around 1725, uses gold and silver to make Ravana’s garden shimmer.
Gold, teal and leaf green.
11. Asavari Ragini
Jai Kisan of Malpura, Asavari Ragini, c. 1756. Ink, opaque watercolor and gold on paper; Rajput Style, Malpura School. Harvard Art Museums.
Jai Kisan of Malpura painted this Ragamala page around 1756, picturing the morning raga Asavari.
Lemon gold, sky blue and green.
12. Scenes of a Marriage Ceremony (cassone panel)
Scenes of a Marriage Ceremony (cassone panel), ca. 1410. Victoria and Albert Museum, London.
This panel of around 1410 decorated a cassone, the gilded wedding chest that carried a bride’s dowry.
Gilt, ochre and umber.
Gold pictures love black, navy, deep green and white walls, and every wood from oak to walnut. In a room with brass lamps or a gilt mirror, one golden picture pulls everything together. For more, see art for blue walls, yellow wall art and maximalist decor.
Questions
What colour walls go with gold art?
Black, navy, deep green, burgundy and warm white all make gold glow.
Is black and gold art still in style?
Yes. Gold on a dark ground is timeless, especially in Japanese screens and old masters.
What frame goes with gold art?
A thin gold or black frame; avoid heavy gilt so the picture keeps its shine.
Does a gold print contain real gold?
No. A print reproduces the colour and glow of the gold on paper or canvas, not the metal itself.