portraiture

[ pawr-tri-cher, pohr- ]

noun

1. the art or an instance of making portraits.
2. a pictorial representation; portrait.
3. a verbal picture.

portraiture

/ ˈpɔːtrɪtʃə /

noun

1. the practice or art of making portraits
2. 1. another term for portrait
   2. portraits collectively
3. a verbal description

Word History and Origins

Origin of portraiture¹

1325–75; Middle English < Middle French; portrait, -ure

Example Sentences

He equipped it with basic rules for painting and for how body parts are represented in portraiture — and then set it loose making art.

From Science News

Which makes this an Alice Neel painting that is absent Neel’s signature style of portraiture.

From Freakonomics

Neel was known for an intense and direct style of portraiture — but most of the people she painted weren’t famous, or rich.

From Freakonomics

Ektachrome was intended primarily for portraiture, so it has a bias toward warmer hues.

From The Daily Beast

This competition seeks entries that broaden the definition of portraiture with images and media that reflect the country’s diversity as represented through the identities of the artists and subjects as well as their varying backgrounds depicted.

From Washington Blade

However, argues Hall, the point in history when self-portraiture really took off was during the Middle Ages.

From The Daily Beast

That technology can also expand the concepts of traditional self-portraiture and of selfies.

From The Daily Beast

This is not the first exhibit to ever take on selfies, nor the first examination of portraiture.

From The Daily Beast

Steve McCurry: Well, I thought of this more as a portraiture project of models rather than a fashion shoot in a way.

From The Daily Beast

This penetrating style of portraiture works on the subtlest of emotional responses as well.

From The Daily Beast

I think these extracts are sufficient to give a portraiture of the place in olden times.

From Project Gutenberg

This solemn tragedy they felt to be the theme of devout and prayerful meditation rather than of portraiture in art.

From Project Gutenberg

This portraiture of his brother-artist is not a bad specimen of its kind, although we shall meet with better ones.

From Project Gutenberg

The last-quoted letter adds a few more touches to the portraiture of Chopin which has been in progress in the preceding pages.

From Project Gutenberg

His Life by his satellite Boswell holds the first place among biographies as a triumph of portraiture.

From Project Gutenberg

Related Words

• characterization
• confession
• definition
• depiction
• detail
• explanation
• information
• narration
• narrative
• picture
• portrayal
• report
• sketch
• statement
• story
• summary
• tale
• version