Oleography is a method of making colour prints that closely resemble oil paintings. In this chromolithography (colour lithography) process, stone or metal plates are used to reproduce an image by building up layers of different coloured inks. Invented in 1796, lithography relies on the principle that water and oil repel one another. Each plate is treated through a process that renders the image area receptive to an oily medium (e.g. tusche, a greasy ink), while the negative space becomes water-receptive – so that the ink sticks only to the image to be printed.

Developed in the 1830s, oleography was a popular method of colour reproduction for many decades. To create an oleograph, a separate plate was prepared by hand for each colour, meaning that numerous stone plates might be required to produce a single print. Once complete, oleographs could be varnished to resemble oil paintings; the illusion was often completed by gluing the print to canvas before it was framed.