painterly

adjective

paint·​er·​ly ˈpān-tər-lē How to pronounce painterly (audio)
1
: of, relating to, or typical of a painter : artistic
painterly attention to detail
2
: suggestive or characteristic of a painting or of the art of painting
painterly photography
especially : marked by an openness of form which is not linear and in which sharp outlines are lacking
painterly brushwork
painterliness noun

Examples of painterly in a Sentence

He has a painterly eye. a painterly picture of the sea
Recent Examples on the Web
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
No director before him had matched the novel’s originality in visual form—let alone with painterly beauty and nuanced performances. Stephania Taladrid, The New Yorker, 27 Feb. 2025 In the same spirit, quintessentially Dolce & Gabbana ruched body-con dresses were tempered in their seductiveness by Fang’s painterly motifs. Sandra Salibian, WWD, 25 Feb. 2025 In the past decade and half, the key shift in her painterly language is the sinuous, expressive lines that appear within her images, often in the foreground. Emmanuel Iduma, ARTnews.com, 21 Feb. 2025 Simpson meets the daunting beauty of the celestial sphere with a painterly language of stellar silvers and penumbral grays. Zoë Hopkins, New York Times, 2 Jan. 2025 See All Example Sentences for painterly

Word History

First Known Use

circa 1586, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Time Traveler
The first known use of painterly was circa 1586

Browse Nearby Words

Cite this Entry

“Painterly.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/painterly. Accessed 3 Mar. 2025.

Last Updated: - Updated example sentences
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