Beaux-Arts

American  

[boh-zahr, boh-zar] / boʊˈzɑr, boʊˈzar /

adjective

1. noting or pertaining to a style of architecture, popularly associated with the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris, that prevailed in France in the late 19th century and that was adopted in the U.S. and elsewhere c1900, characterized by the free and eclectic use and adaptation of French architectural features of the 16th through 18th centuries combined so as to give a massive, elaborate, and often ostentatious effect, and also by the use of symmetrical plans preferably allowing vast amounts of interior space.

2. resembling the architecture, architectural precepts, or teaching methods of the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris: often used in a pejorative sense to designate excessive formalism disregarding considerations of structural truth, advanced aesthetic theory, rational planning, or economy.

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plural noun

1. (lowercase) the fine arts, as painting or music.

beaux-arts British  

/ bəʊˈzɑː /

plural noun

1. another word for fine art

2. (modifier) relating to the classical decorative style, esp that of the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris

   beaux-arts influences

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Etymology

Origin of Beaux-Arts

First recorded in 1815–25

Example Sentences

A brief stint as an apprentice architect taught him to draw in the Beaux-Arts mode but he quickly moved beyond this, as we see from the breathtaking drawing that opens the show.

From The Wall Street Journal

A chance meeting with Richard Morris Hunt, the first American architect admitted to the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris and lauded for his designs for the Vanderbilt family, led Roth to Hunt’s firm in New York and then to that of the architect Ogden Codman Jr., a tastemaking friend of Edith Wharton.

From The Wall Street Journal

I left the bus in front of the aquarium, L’Institut Océanographique de Monaco, a stunning 1910 beaux-arts limestone mansion perched on a cliff.

From The Wall Street Journal

The old museum is housed in a stately yet crumbling Beaux-Arts building in Tahrir Square that dates from 1902, while the GEM, sprawling over the Giza Plateau, is sleek and ultramodern, and sometimes reminiscent of an Emirati airport with its high-end gift shop and food court.

From The Wall Street Journal

One thing it clarifies is why Jim Crow monuments are all rendered in the same backward, Beaux-Arts style, exploiting classical forms and elaborate ornamentation harnessed for the 1890s City Beautiful movement.

From Los Angeles Times