portraiture
portraiture Lexical Profile
portraiture Game Scores & Validity
• noun
The visual art or practice of creating portraits through painting, drawing, photography, or sculpture.
"She specialized in Renaissance portraiture during her graduate studies in art history."
Portraits considered collectively as a group or artistic genre.
"The national gallery houses an impressive collection of eighteenth-century British portraiture."
A vivid graphic or literary description, representation, or characterization of a person or subject.
"The novelist is celebrated for her nuanced psychological portraiture of working-class families."
• Nearby Words
Word Origin & Etymology
Borrowed in the late 14th century from Old French pourtraiture, meaning 'a drawing or figure,' derived from pourtraire ('to draw or depict'), ultimately from Latin protrahere ('to draw forth or reveal').
Usage Trend
Historical frequency of usage in published text.