Also 7–8 easle, 8 ezel. [ad. Du. ezel = Ger. esel ass. Cf. the similar use of HORSE.] A wooden frame to support a picture while the painter is at work upon it; a similar frame used to support a blackboard, etc. (In quot. 1791 a blunder for palette.)
1634. J. B[ate], Myst. Nat. & Art, 119. Provide a frame or Easel called by Artists.
1688. R. Holme, Armoury, III. 193/1. St. Luke, the Patron of Painters … is drawn at his Easle working.
1733. Belchier, in Phil. Trans., XXXVIII. 196. The Trunk of a Skeleton fix’d to a Painter’s Ezel.
1791. E. Darwin, Bot. Gard., I. 7. Many of the unexpected changes in mixing colours on a painter’s easle … may depend on these principles.
1859. Gullick & Timbs, Paint., 199. The Easel is a frame which supports the painting during its progress.
b. as the typical instrument of a painter.
1838–9. Hallam, Hist. Lit., I. I. iii. 223, note. Some productions of his easel vie with those of Raphael.
Hence Easeldom (nonce-wd.), painting as a profession; the whole body of painters. Easel-picture, easel-piece, a picture painted at the easel, or small enough to stand upon it.
1706. Art of Painting (1744), 308. He continued working on his easel-pieces.
1841. W. Spalding, Italy & It. Isl., II. 396. Some of Lodovico’s best easel-pictures are perfect models in a solemn tone of colouring.
1860. Sala, in Cornh. Mag., I. 578. This grandee of easeldom.
