First, a brief primer:

An easel is a wooden or metal tool for the artist, to which the master attaches a painting or drawing while at work. The English word “easel,” meaning “мольберт,” comes from German and translates as “donkey.” Curiously, the word for “easel” in many languages is a synonym for “donkey” in those tongues (in Dutch, “schildersezel”; in Latin, “asinus”). Apparently the object was so named for its appearance — four “legs,” and a “back” on which the canvas is fixed. The Russian word “мольберт” derives from the German “Malbrett” — a drawing board.

The first mention of the easel was recorded in the first century AD. In the twelfth century, tabletop easels were used by monks for the making of manuscripts. Beginning in the seventeenth century, easels themselves became works of art.

Today shops mainly stock three-legged easels, though there are also four-legged ones — for children.

Among three-legged easels there are cheap ones and expensive ones. The cheap ones are very unstable, light, and fragile. The legs constantly slide apart, and the easel can easily fall. The support for the board is fixed with a bolt, and considerable force is needed to tighten it. Without that force, the board will keep tipping forward and the support will lean.

On expensive easels of this type, by contrast, the legs are very steady and plant firmly on the floor. Moreover, the two front legs are braced by an additional wooden crossbar and never slide to one side — they stay securely fixed. The board support is held by a crossbar with two bolts, so the board will not tip. In addition, such an easel has a special feature allowing the board to be secured from above, so it will never fall off the easel.

Iron easels are very heavy and unstable: brush one with your foot by accident and it crashes to the floor with a clatter. The more it falls that way, the sooner the bolts work loose and the easel becomes unusable. Yet it is easy to take along, fold into a bag made for it, and set out for a plein air session — a wooden one will not fold like that.

There are also small tabletop easels. They are convenient, but you cannot paint a large picture on them.

A studio easel is for professional artists and is very expensive. You will not even find such an easel in every art supply shop. Some are even fitted with electric lifts. Studio easels most often have castors, though there are also simpler ones on a fixed stand.

But if the easel still calls to mind only painters, you are hopelessly behind the times. Our friends and partners — Nordmasters company — present easels for television sets that have become a model of bright, ergonomic space design.
The model is made of solid wood, which makes it strong and highly reliable. And six colour options allow this unusual TV console to fit interiors of many styles and directions. Paired classically with a painting, such an easel also looks simply superb. One could judge that with one’s own eyes at our exhibition on Lavrushinsky Lane.

Thank you, Nordmasters, for supporting our projects and for a lasting friendship!