A painting in which color is used sparingly and that avoids the extremes of values. That is to say, it has a low contrast.

In painting, tone refers to the relative lightness or darkness of a color. One color can have an almost infinite number of different tones.

In his book "A Painter's Notes", Henri Matisse wrote: "When I have found the relationship of all the tones the result must be a living harmony of all the tones, a harmony not unlike that of a musical composition."