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Art & Art History vocabulary · Visual Elements & Composition

Foreground

Meaning in art & art history, with examples

/ˈfɔːrɡraʊnd/nounCore term

In art & art history, foreground means: The part of a picture that seems closest to the viewer, usually at the bottom; the areas behind it are the middle ground and the background.

In Turkish: ön plan

How it is used

Essential for saying where things are: in the foreground, in the middle ground, in the background. It is also a verb: an exhibition can foreground a theme, meaning it gives that theme special attention.

Example sentences

  1. In the foreground, two peasants are resting under a tree; behind them, the fields stretch to the horizon.

  2. The exhibition foregrounds women artists who were left out of earlier histories.

Common collocations

  • in the foreground
  • foreground figures
  • foreground and background
  • foreground a theme
  • compositionThe way the parts of an artwork, such as figures, shapes, colours and empty spaces, are arranged within the picture or space.
  • perspectiveA method of showing depth and distance on a flat surface, for example by making parallel lines meet at a point and painting distant things smaller.
  • focal pointThe part of an artwork that draws the viewer's eye first and holds attention, often created through contrast, light, colour or the direction of lines.
  • landscapeA painting or drawing whose main subject is natural scenery such as mountains, fields, rivers or the sky; also the genre of such pictures.

This word in other fields

The same English word can have a different meaning in another field:

More terms: Visual Elements & Composition

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