Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • adjective Of, relating to, or characteristic of a painter; artistic.
  • adjective Having qualities unique to the art of painting.
  • adjective Of, relating to, or being a style of painting marked by openness of form, with shapes distinguished by variations of color rather than by outline or contour.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Like a painter. Sir P. Sidney, Arcadia, i.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • adjective obsolete Like a painter's work.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adjective Characteristic of a painter or paintings.
  • adjective of a painting Having clear brush-strokes.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • adjective having qualities unique to the art of painting

Etymologies

Sorry, no etymologies found.

Support

Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word painterly.

Examples

  • But now rehabilitation is complete and we see Sargent as an exultant master of characterisation and empathy, of colour and light, of shadow and the contre-jour effect (the subject seen against the light), and of the fat substantial paint to which the word painterly properly belongs.

    Evening Standard - Home 2010

  • Although Allard is considered a documentary photographer, this is an example of what photo critics would call "painterly" - a word usually reserved for fine art, not necessarily photojournalism.

    NPR Topics: News 2010

  • Although Allard is considered a documentary photographer, this is an example of what photo critics would call "painterly" - a word usually reserved for fine art, not necessarily photojournalism.

    NPR Topics: News 2010

  • Hals makes his loose, gestural approach, termed "painterly" by the Swiss-German art historian Heinrich Wölfflin, look so effortless that it is often assumed that he worked quickly, making what would now be called "one shot" paintings; in fact, he built up his vibrant images with traditional layering techniques, trusting—just as Rubens, his near-contemporary and fellow master of the painterly, did—that his last flourishes would bring the result to vivid life.

    Picture-Perfect Rogues' Gallery Karen Wilkin 2011

  • Perhaps the biggest challenge comes when the experts in Chinese classical art sit down with the experts in American painterly modernism to hash out their discreetly entwined artistic legacies still much in denial by both camps.

    G. Roger Denson: China Takes Top Spot in Art Auction Sales Away From the US & UK -- What It Means for Global Culture G. Roger Denson 2011

  • Perhaps the biggest challenge comes when the experts in Chinese classical art sit down with the experts in American painterly modernism to hash out their discreetly entwined artistic legacies still much in denial by both camps.

    G. Roger Denson: China Takes Top Spot in Art Auction Sales Away From the US & UK -- What It Means for Global Culture G. Roger Denson 2011

  • His films have also been called painterly and - with their present-at-the-creation intimations of organic and molecular forms, solar flares and shifting planetary bodies - cosmological.

    NYT > Home Page By MARGALIT FOX 2011

  • His films have also been called painterly and - with their present-at-the-creation intimations of organic and molecular forms, solar flares and shifting planetary bodies - cosmological.

    NYT > Home Page By MARGALIT FOX 2011

  • The way the vocals are smeared against the instruments strikes me as painterly, which is appropriate given Marzette was a great visual artist as well as musician.

    destination: OUT 2008

  • They are the same kind of painterly flowers that have over-grown on my button down shirt.

    Yazmany Arboleda: Bringing Marina Flowers 2010

Comments

Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.