noun
-
the practice or art of making portraits
-
-
another term for portrait
-
portraits collectively
-
-
a verbal description
Etymology
Origin of portraiture
Explanation
The process of painting a picture or taking a photograph of a person is called portraiture. If an art exhibit only includes pictures of faces, you can describe its focus as portraiture. Portraiture is the art of making a portrait, which is a close study of one person. Taking a candid snapshot of your friend riding by on her skateboard isn't portraiture. But if you ask your friend to pose with her skateboard while you take a photo — that's what portraiture is all about. Painters who specialize in portraiture often have subjects "sit" while their portraits are painted. Portraiture is rooted in the Old French portraire, "to paint."
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
It had been on temporary display for 10 months, due to end in August, as part of an exhibition titled 'Artists First: Contemporary Perspectives on Portraiture'.
From BBC • Jun. 22, 2026
All the president’s men — and a few people who definitely weren’t on Richard M. Nixon’s team — reconvene in the National Portrait Gallery show “Watergate: Portraiture and Intrigue.”
From Washington Post • Apr. 8, 2022
“Watergate: Portraiture and Intrigue” spotlights the June 17, 1972, break-in at the Democratic National Committee headquarters, which led to Nixon’s resignation two years later.
From Washington Times • Mar. 7, 2022
Portraiture also gets loosely defined in the show — sometimes too loosely, as being anything with a figure in it.
From Los Angeles Times • Nov. 7, 2021
He carried all three portraits to the front counter and was about to stamp his embossed gold Hofacket’s Fine Portraiture seal on the lower left corner of each one when Granddaddy stopped him.
From "The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate" by Jacqueline Kelly
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
