fine artn.
/ˌfʌɪn ˈɑːt/, U.S. /ˌfaɪn ˈɑrt/ 1.
a. In plural. Originally: the creative arts, including the visual arts, poetry, music, rhetoric, etc., whose products are intended to be appreciated primarily or solely for their aesthetic, imaginative, or intellectual content; (now usually) spec. the visual arts, esp. painting and sculpture, viewed in this way. Also: these arts as a subject of training, study, or examination.In early use probably not a fixed collocation.
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society > leisure > the arts > the arts in general > [noun]
art1591
fine arts1686
poetry1856
society > leisure > the arts > visual arts > [noun]
arts of imitation1638
design1638
art1668
fine arts1686
imitative arts1753
designation1796
fine art1804
beaux arts1821
visual art1857
machine art1945
picturedom1945
1686 T. Otway tr. S. de Broë Hist. Triumvirates II. xxii. 354 He had no great Opinion of those fine Arts [Fr. beaux arts] which Cicero was so much a Master of.
1691 tr. P. O. de Vaumorière Art of Pleasing in Conversat. ix. 168 The Italian acknowledg'd that Paris exceeded Rome for fine Arts [Fr. beaux Arts] and Painting, Buildings and Musick.
1745 D. Fordyce Dialogues conc. Educ. I. x. 297 If Music, Poetry, Painting, or any of the Fine Arts are at any time suborned to promote a false Taste, and immoral Associations, it is not the Order of Nature we are to blame.
1766 J. Fordyce Serm. Young Women I. vi. 250 They..wanted instruction in the principles of the Fine Arts.
1821 W. M. Craig Lect. Drawing i. 4 Our advancement in the fine arts.
1890 F. S. Haden Art of Painter-etcher 5 The singular restriction of the Fine Arts to three—Oil painting, Sculpture, and Architecture, to the exclusion of Water Colour painting and Painter-Etching.
1934 H. Hiler Notes Technique Painting ii. 99 White lead, the most important pigment in general use in the fine arts at the present time.
1964 W. R. Brain Doctors Past & Present 55 He was a patron of the fine arts and of the study of antiquities.
2015 Chron.-Telegram (Elyria, Ohio) 29 Apr. b5/5 Our district offers an excellent curriculum for fine arts.
b. In singular. One of these arts. Also as a mass noun: the fine arts collectively, esp. as constituting a department or subject of training, study, or examination.
ΘΚΠ
society > leisure > the arts > visual arts > [noun]
arts of imitation1638
design1638
art1668
fine arts1686
imitative arts1753
designation1796
fine art1804
beaux arts1821
visual art1857
machine art1945
picturedom1945
1804 Morning Post 11 May 3/3 [The exhibition] serves to raise architecture higher as a fine art.
1855 ‘G. Eliot’ Let. 16 July (1954) II. 210 Literature is Fine Art, and the man who writes mere literature with insolent slovenliness is..inexcusable.
1934 News & Sunday Tribune (Jefferson City, Missouri) 2 Dec. 4 a/1 She prepared herself to teach fine art, making high grades in all her subjects.
1990 V. Clark in G. Cocks & K. H. Jarausch German Professions 1800–1950 i. 147 In 1818..the Archiv für die Baukunst und ihre Hülfswissenschaften..contended that they should exclude architecture as a fine art.
2012 Irish Times 19 May (Mag.) 16/1 Having studied fine art,..her mother suggested a fashion degree.
2. An activity likened to a branch of the fine arts, esp. in requiring refined or subtle skill. Frequently humorous or ironic.
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the world > action or operation > ability > skill or skilfulness > [noun] > skill or art > inventive or constructive skill > something requiring
fine art1721
1721 T. D'Urfey Ariadne iii. ii, in New Opera's 216 Fine Art of Love, both Hearts are sure at ease, That are so full of one another's Praises.
1727 Coll. Misc. Lett. Mist's Weekly Jrnl. III. xlvii. 242 These are a Sett of over-careful Tramontaine Lawyers, that are labouring for the fine Art of passing Judgment without Suspicion of Influence, or Prejudice.
1827 T. De Quincey in Blackwood's Mag. Feb. 199 (title) On Murder, considered as one of the Fine Arts.
1869 J. R. Browne Adventures Apache Country 352 Bill-posting is one of the fine arts.
1909 H. G. Wells Ann Veronica vii. 138 The Goopes were..following a fruitarian career..and they had reduced simple living to the finest of fine arts.
1939 Daily Mirror 15 June 16 (advt.) Tea-blending is a fine art at the Maypole.
2006 J. Franch Robber Baron xviii. 210 A brilliant conversationalist, he was also an expert in the fine art of flattery.
Compounds
General attributive.
a. With the first element in plural form.
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1822 Gen. Weekly Reg. 2 June 333/2 It is only necessary that you cause yourself to be recognised as a Fine-Arts student or professor, and you are instantly received.
1854 Monthly Jrnl. Progress Jan. 2 A universal regret was manifested that the Fine Arts Galleries should be suffered also to disappear.
1914 J. L. Street Abroad at Home xxxix. 499 The only mural decorations in the Fine Arts Building will be eight enormous panels by Robert Reid.
1942 E. Blunden Romantic Poetry & Fine Arts 17 Mrs. Hemans must have kept a sharp look-out for fine-arts literature.
1986 Irish Times 30 July 7 A fine arts expert from Sotheby's.
2014 Vanity Fair Apr. 185/2 Approximately 345 men and women with fine-arts expertise..were charged with protecting Europe's monuments and cultural treasures.
b. With the first element in singular form.
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1823 New Monthly Mag. 7 388 They invite Fine Art students into their mechanical schools.
1848 W. M. Thackeray Vanity Fair l. 442 She confides the card to the gentleman of the Fine Art Repository.
1856 Art-Jrnl. New Ser. 2 57/2 Glasgow Fine-Art Association... The paintings..were exhibited in the St. Vincent Street Fine-Art Gallery.
1884 Cent. Mag. Nov. 12 We must furbish it up, and dispatch it,—‘With Care’—to a Fine-Art museum—that old Sedan chair.
1911 Hist. Teacher's Mag. Apr. 180/2 Second-hand sets of art journals and fine art books, subscription publications and similar things.
1946 R. Blesh Shining Trumpets i. 6 A hybridized popular music rather than a fine-art form.
1966 Penrose Ann. 19 164 One has met fine art students..aware of their awe-inspiring heritage.
2005 Digital Photographer No. 31. 34/2 I'm partial to the fine-art water colour prints.
Phrases
Originally U.S. to get (also have) something down to a fine art: to attain a high level of skill or accomplishment in a particular activity through experience.
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1880 Logansport (Indiana) Evening Pharos 13 Feb. 2/2 In the way of stealing the Republicans never ‘botch’ matters. They have got the business down to a fine art.
1907 Post Standard (Syracuse, N.Y.) 15 Jan. 4/1 She has the making of salads down to a fine art, and upon short notice she will concoct any kind of salad, from lobster to fruit.
1989 J. Smith Fairs, Feasts & Frolics 74 They..had the assembly of the pageant down to a fine art, taking about two hours to mount the superstructure.
2003 LivingEtc Sept. 88/1 I've got the floor-painting routine down to a fine art,..and can give the whole of the upstairs the whitening treatment in under three hours.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, September 2016; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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