Canvas

Sailor bag made of canvas
Canvas roof at the Erasmus station of the Brussels Metro
One of Poland's biggest canvas paintings, the Battle of Grunwald, 1878, by Jan Matejko (426 cm × 987 cm (168 in × 389 in)), displayed in the National Museum in Warsaw[1]

Canvas is an extremely durable plain-woven fabric used for making sails, tents, marquees, backpacks, shelters, as a support for oil painting and for other items for which sturdiness is required, as well as in such fashion objects as handbags, electronic device cases, and shoes. It is popularly used by artists as a painting surface, typically stretched across a wooden frame.

Modern canvas is usually made of cotton or linen, or sometimes polyvinyl chloride (PVC), although historically it was made from hemp. It differs from other heavy cotton fabrics, such as denim, in being plain weave rather than twill weave. Canvas comes in two basic types: plain and duck. The threads in duck canvas are more tightly woven. The term duck comes from the Dutch word for cloth, doek. In the United States, canvas is classified in two ways: by weight (ounces per square yard) and by a graded number system. The numbers run in reverse of the weight so a number 10 canvas is lighter than number 4.

The word "canvas" is derived from the 13th century Anglo-French canevaz and the Old French canevas. Both may be derivatives of the Vulgar Latin cannapaceus for "made of hemp", originating from the Greek κάνναβις (cannabis).[2][3]

  1. ^ "National Museum (Muzeum Narodowe)". www.warsawtour.pl. Archived from the original on 7 October 2013. Retrieved 20 October 2013. the largest Polish painting "Battle of Grunwald" by Jan Matejko (426 x 987 cm).
  2. ^ "The Online Etymology Dictionary". Etymonline.com. Retrieved 2012-05-05.
  3. ^ "Oxford Dictionaries". Oxford University Press. Archived from the original on March 13, 2013. Retrieved 2014-03-01.