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portraiture

UK/ˈpɔː(ɹ)tɹɪtjʊə(ɹ)/US/ˈpɔː(ɹ)tɹɪtjʊə(ɹ)/
nounC2Rare in speech; mostly a word you read · #13,995 of 15,258mostly written

Portraiture is the art of making likenesses of people. The art of portraiture, formal portraiture, a master of portraiture.

It is the practice rather than any one picture, which is what separates it from portrait. The difficulty is that a portrait must be a likeness and an interpretation at once, and the sitter usually wants only the first.

Definitions of portraiture

  1. 1nounportraitureThe art of making likenesses of people.C2

    “She studied portraiture in Paris and now paints wealthy families.”

portraiture is an art.

Where it comes from

Old French portraiture comes from portraire, to portray, from Latin protrahere, to draw forth.

  1. Anglo-Norman

    purtraiture

  2. Old French

    portraiture

  3. Middle English

    portraiture

  4. English, today

    portraiture

From Middle English portraiture, portrature, purtraiture, pourtreture, from Old French portraiture, pourtraiture and Anglo-Norman purtraiture.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practise this word

portraiture in the wild

  • In much of his self-portraiture of this type, Escher is in the act of drawing the sphere, whereas in this image he is seated and gazing into it.

    Hand with Reflecting Sphere

  • Portrait photography, or portraiture, is a type of photography aimed toward capturing the personality of a person or group of people by using effective lighting, backdrops, and poses.

    Portrait photography

  • The Royal Society of Portrait Painters is a charity based at Carlton House Terrace, SW1, London that promotes the practice and appreciation of portraiture art.

    Royal Society of Portrait Painters

  • The 85mm is most commonly used for head and shoulder type portraiture, upper torso portraiture and selective floral photography.

    Canon EF 85mm lens

  • Roman portraiture is characterised by unusual realism and the desire to convey images of nature in the high quality style often seen in ancient Roman art.

    Roman portraiture

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From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.