tableau vivant

American  

[ta-bloh vee-vahn] / ta bloʊ viˈvɑ̃ /

noun

French.

• tableaux vivants
  plural

1. tableau.

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tableau vivant British  

/ tablo vivɑ̃ /

noun

1. a representation of a scene, painting, sculpture, etc, by a person or group posed silent and motionless

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Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• tableaux vivants
  plural

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Etymology

Origin of tableau vivant

Literally, “living picture”

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Example Sentences

See Examples For:

tableau vivant

After all, close scrutiny of a painting or a sculpture is not the aim of a tableau vivant.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 16, 2021

For his debut presentation, an informal tableau vivant, she made a point of not arriving until the final minutes.

From Washington Post ● Jun. 2, 2018

It’s a tableau vivant of a woman dressed in a golden gown, sitting on a revolving platform and playing an E-minor chord on a guitar.

From The New Yorker ● Apr. 11, 2016

Tops were whipped off and exchanged, and we were left with a tableau vivant for the ages, one of soccer’s most iconic scenes, the living embodiment of respect, friendship and sportsmanship.

From The Guardian ● Dec. 17, 2015

But if her conduct and appearance had already somewhat jarred upon their limited and precise sense of the fitness of things, what were they to think of the next little act in this tableau vivant?

From Beyond the City by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

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