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Art & Art History vocabulary · Painting & Drawing

Portrait

Meaning in art & art history, with examples

/ˈpɔːrtrət/nounCore term

In art & art history, portrait means: A painting, drawing, photograph or sculpture of a particular person, usually showing the face and saying something about their character or status.

In Turkish: portre, portre resmi

How it is used

One of the main genres of painting. An artist paints a portrait of someone; the person who poses sits for a portrait and is called the sitter. Types include full-length, half-length, group and official portraits. The genre as a whole is portraiture.

Example sentences

  1. This portrait of Sultan Mehmed II is attributed to the Venetian painter Gentile Bellini.

  2. In this portrait, the sitter's hands are as important as her face.

Common collocations

  • paint a portrait
  • sit for a portrait
  • full-length portrait
  • official portrait
  • group portrait
  • self-portraitA portrait that artists make of themselves, usually by looking in a mirror or at a photograph.
  • bustA sculpture of a person's head and neck, usually with the shoulders and upper chest.
  • paintingA picture made by putting paint on a surface such as canvas, wood or a wall; also the art or activity of making such pictures.
  • figurativeShowing people, animals or objects in a way you can recognise, even if they are simplified or distorted; the opposite of abstract.

This word in other fields

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

More terms: Painting & Drawing

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