pictorialism

[ pik-tawr-ee-uh-liz-uhm, -tohr- ]

noun
  1. Fine Arts. the creation or use of pictures or visual images, especially of recognizable or realistic representations.

  2. emphasis on purely photographic or scenic qualities for its own sake, sometimes with a static or lifeless effect: The movie's self-conscious pictorialism makes it little more than a travelogue.

Origin of pictorialism

1
First recorded in 1865–70; pictorial + -ism

Other words from pictorialism

  • pic·to·ri·al·ist, noun

Words Nearby pictorialism

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024