Oeuvre

How it is used

A formal word from French, used in catalogues, reviews and academic writing: a key work in her oeuvre, Picasso's vast oeuvre. In conversation, people usually say body of work or simply work.

Example sentences

1. This small landscape is unusual in an oeuvre dominated by portraits.

2. The catalogue raisonné lists every known painting in the artist's oeuvre.

Common collocations

• the artist's oeuvre
• entire oeuvre
• late oeuvre
• body of work

Related terms

• styleThe particular way an artwork looks that links it to an artist, a group, a place or a period, shown in its forms, colours, technique and subjects.
• retrospectiveA large exhibition that shows an artist's work from their whole career, or from a long period of it, usually in chronological order.
• masterpieceAn artwork of outstanding quality, or the best work an artist ever made; originally, the piece a craftsman made to be accepted as a master by a guild.
• attributeTo say that a work was made by a particular artist, place or period, based on evidence such as style, documents or scientific tests.

More terms: Describing & Interpreting Art

• artwork
• depict
• subject matter
• iconography
• symbolism
• aesthetic
• figurative
• critique
• motif
• juxtapose