Neutral wall art: 12 soft paintings in cream, stone and sand

Carl Larsson’s white rooms, Lan Ying’s ink landscapes, Hokusai’s dyers and Hilma af Klint’s cream abstractions: twelve quiet pictures for a calm, neutral home.

Neutral rooms, in cream, linen, stone and oak, are calm and easy to live with. The art that suits them is quiet too: soft light, pale grounds and gentle earth colours, with perhaps a single accent of colour.

Here are twelve masterworks in neutral tones, in three groups: cream interiors, drawings in ink and wash, and neutral with a single accent. Each is shown with its colour palette, and each can be ordered as a print.

Cream interiors

Pale rooms full of soft daylight.

1. In the Corner. From A Home

A young boy sits in a striped chair in the corner of a pale, sunlit Swedish room.

Carl Larsson, In the Corner. From A Home, 1895. Watercolour. Nationalmuseum, Stockholm.

Carl Larsson painted his son sitting in the corner as a punishment, for his book A Home of 1899. The pale wood and painted furniture of their house inspired Swedish design for a century.

Cream, sand and soft blue for a Scandinavian room.

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2. Convalescence

A young woman rests in a bright bedroom in white linen and a pink shawl, with tulips on the nightstand.

Carl Larsson, Convalescence, 1899. Watercolour. Nationalmuseum, Stockholm.

Larsson painted this quiet scene of recovery in 1899, with white linen, floral wallpaper and pink tulips.

Soft cream and blush for a calm bedroom.

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3. Jilted (The Letter)

A young man slumps in a chair with a crumpled letter while his small black terrier comforts him.

Briton Rivière, Jilted (The Letter), 1887. Oil on canvas. Philadelphia Museum of Art.

Briton Rivière painted Jilted in 1887. Only the dog seems to understand the bad news.

Pale cream with touches of black, perfect in a neutral living room.

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4. Portrait of Clara Böcklin

A woman in a white dress sits by a window, light falling across her face.

Arnold Böcklin, Portrait of Clara Böcklin, by 1901.

Arnold Böcklin painted his wife Clara in white by a window, with a cobalt blue vase beside her.

White and stone with a single blue note.

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Drawings in ink and wash

Soft browns, inks and paper tones.

5. Landscapes after Song and Yuan masters

Misty mountains, pines and quiet rivers in soft ink and colour.

Lan Ying, Landscapes after Song and Yuan masters, 1642. Album of twelve leaves; ink and color on paper. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.

Lan Ying painted this album in 1642, in homage to the great Chinese landscape painters of the Song and Yuan dynasties.

Paper, ink and soft brown for a calm study.

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6. Rocky Landscape with a Lake

A quiet lake among sunlit rocky hills, drawn in brown ink.

Franz Kobell, Rocky Landscape with a Lake, 1749–1822. Pen and brown ink. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.

Franz Kobell drew hundreds of landscapes in pen and brown ink in late eighteenth century Munich.

Warm sepia for a neutral living room.

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7. Standing Young Woman

A young woman in an eighteenth century gown with lace cuffs stands in three quarter view.

Augustin de Saint-Aubin, Standing Young Woman, 18th century. Watercolor and touches of black ink and brown wash over black chalk on off-white antique laid paper, framing lines in black ink, laid down on cream antique laid paper. Harvard Art Museums.

Augustin de Saint-Aubin was one of the great draughtsmen of eighteenth century Paris. This watercolour study shows his delicate line.

A graceful study for a dressing room or bedroom.

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8. Dyers at Work

Two dyers pull long bolts of cloth from a vat and lay them out to dry.

Katsushika Hokusai, Dyers at Work, c. 1800. Color woodblock print. Cleveland Museum of Art.

Hokusai made this print of dyers at work around 1800, a quiet scene of craft in soft beige and grey.

Linen and stone tones for a calm hallway.

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Neutral with a single accent

Soft grounds with one note of colour.

9. The Ten Largest, No. 10, Old Age

A grid of ochre, blue and brick red sits within a soft blush field of looping lines.

Hilma af Klint, The Ten Largest, No. 10, Old Age, 1907. Tempera on paper, mounted on canvas. Hilma af Klint Foundation, Stockholm.

Hilma af Klint painted The Ten Largest in 1907, ten huge canvases on the ages of life. No. 10 is Old Age.

Soft blush and cream, with a quiet note of colour.

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10. The Swan, No. 22

A large hexagon of cream and off white, divided by ochre bands and fine red lines.

Hilma af Klint, The Swan, No. 22, 1915. Oil on canvas. Hilma af Klint Foundation, Stockholm.

The last pictures in af Klint’s Swan series of 1915 turn into calm geometry in cream, ochre and stone.

A modern neutral for a minimal room.

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11. Summer Patterns

A woman holding a fan studies a book of textile patterns.

Kitagawa Utamaro, Summer Patterns, c. 1804-06 (Bunka 1-3). Woodblock print; ink and color on paper. Harvard Art Museums.

Kitagawa Utamaro made this print around 1804 to 1806, part of a series advertising the patterns of a fabric shop.

Cream and soft peach with a touch of indigo.

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12. Angela Böcklin with a red hairnet

A woman in profile wears a bright red hairnet against a pale cream background.

Arnold Böcklin, Angela Böcklin with a red hairnet, 1863.

Arnold Böcklin painted his wife Angela in 1863, in profile against cream, with one flash of red.

Cream with a single red accent, beautiful in a neutral bedroom.

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Neutral art looks best in natural oak, pale wood or thin brass frames, with a warm white mount. Repeat its colours in the room: a linen sofa, a stone vase, an oak table. For a little life, choose one picture with a single accent, such as a red hairnet or a blue vase. For more, see art for white walls and black and white art.

Questions

What is neutral wall art?

Art in soft, quiet colours such as cream, beige, stone, sand, taupe and pale grey, which blends with neutral interiors.

Is neutral art boring?

Not if it has texture, light and a small accent of colour. The best neutral pictures reward a long look.

What frames suit neutral art?

Natural oak, pale ash, thin brass or white frames, with a warm white mount.

Where does neutral art work best?

In bedrooms, living rooms and any room painted in warm white, cream or greige.