limner

American  

[lim-ner] / ˈlɪm nər /

noun

1. a person who paints or draws.

2. an itinerant painter of 18th-century America who usually had little formal training.

3. a person who describes or depicts in words.

   an essayist known as a fine limner of prominent people and their careers.

4. an illuminator of medieval manuscripts.

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Etymology

Origin of limner

1350–1400; Middle English lymnour, lymynour; see limn, -or ², -er ¹

Example Sentences

New England folk art and furniture are more prominent than ever, with limner portraits, including at least three by the self-taught painter Ammi Philips being especially notable this year.

From New York Times • Jan. 23, 2014

He and Velasquez studied together and were born within a year of each other, but their characters as artists were utterly different; one was a grand chamberlain, the other a preacher and limner.

From Time Magazine Archive

Here was their lesson in making it: the teen-age limner who, thanks to Rome and practical ambition, rose to become the second president of the Royal Academy.

From Time Magazine Archive

To say it shortly: Will Shakespeare's Scottish play about Macbeth Hath found a limner in McDali. 1st BR.

From Time Magazine Archive

The two young gentlemen laughed over Mr. Canticle's prophecies, and excused his loquacity because he had been a limner till the vogue for foreign painters compelled him to apply his art in another direction.

From The Passionate Elopement by MacKenzie, Compton