Show Summary Details
Overview
genre
Quick Reference
Term in art history and criticism for paintings or other works depicting scenes from daily life. It may be applied to appropriate art of any place or period, but most commonly suggests the type of domestic subjects favoured by 17th-century Dutch artists. In a broader sense, the term is used to mean a particular branch or category of art: landscape and portraiture, for example, are genres of painting, and the essay and the short story are genres of literature.
