"Picture" or "painting"

[Rachel Adams]

Hello.

Is it wrong to use the word "picture" to refer to a painting? For example, "Mona Lisa is a favourite picture".

 

[GoesStation]

No, it's fine. But "Mona Lisa" is the subject of that painting. You can add a word to make the statement natural.

 

[Rachel Adams]

No, it's fine. But "Mona Lisa" is the subject of that painting. You can add a word to make the statement natural.

What word? Oh, I wrote "favourite" instead of "famous".

 

[GoesStation]

What word? Oh, I wrote "favourite" instead of "famous".

That's another improvement. I was looking for an article.

 

[Skrej]

The distinction gets even blurrier when you're looking a photograph of the actual painting.

 

[Rachel Adams]

That's another improvement. I was looking for an article.

''Mona Liza is the famous picture''.

 

[Rachel Adams]

The distinction gets even blurrier when you're looking a photograph of the actual painting.

Photo/photograph is also a picture but not a painting. A painting is also a picture. Right?

 

[GoesStation]

''Mona Liza is the famous picture''.

Sorry, no. I was looking for "The Mona Lisa is a famous picture." Your version answers the question "Here are some pictures. Which one is the famous one?" — but it still needs to begin with the definite article.

 

[Rover_KE]

To many people, a picture is a film/movie, so avoid it to refer to a work of art.

You must see 'Titanic'—it's a great picture.

Spoiler alert: It sinks.

 

[emsr2d2]

To be accurate, the painting is called (in English) Mona Lisa, not The Mona Lisa, even though in the original Italian it is La Giaconda.

https://www.britannica.com/topic/Mona-Lisa-painting

 

[GoesStation]

To be accurate, the painting is called (in English) Mona Lisa, not The Mona Lisa, even though in the original Italian it is La Giaconda.

https://www.britannica.com/topic/Mona-Lisa-painting

I didn't know that. In American English, at least, it nearly always takes the article.

 

[Rachel Adams]

To be accurate, the painting is called (in English) Mona Lisa, not The Mona Lisa, even though in the original Italian it is La Giaconda.

https://www.britannica.com/topic/Mona-Lisa-painting

Is my original sentence correct? "Mona Lisa is a famous picture." I had to change "favourite" into "famous".

 

[emsr2d2]

I would use only "painting" there.

 

[Tdol]

I didn't know that. In American English, at least, it nearly always takes the article.

This BrE speaker is also guilty as charged.

 

[emsr2d2]

I'm not going to pretend for one second that I don't actually say "The Mona Lisa ..." but I felt it was only fair to point out that the OP's original use (no article) was, in fact, correct.

 

[Yankee]

Hello.

Is it wrong to use the word "picture" to refer to a painting? For example, "Mona Lisa is a favourite picture".

I wouldn't consider using "picture" to refer to any artwork and I'm sure most artists would be offended to hear/read their paintings referred to as pictures.

 

[tedmc]

I think a painting is a picture and so is a photograph or a poster. It is like calling an apple a fruit.

 

[Skrej]

I wouldn't consider using "picture" to refer to any artwork and I'm sure most artists would be offended to hear/read their paintings referred to as pictures.

I imagine Ralph Goings , Leng Jun, Robert Bechtle and other photorealists, hyperrealists, as well as anyone who practices trompe l'oeil might disagree. It's the very essence of what they're trying to do - render a photograph via another medium.

Having sat through quite a few art critiques as a student, it's not uncommon to hear someone refer to various elements in the 'picture', or to use 'picture' as a synonym for 'painting' or 'scene'.

Regarding Goings, here's a quote from him about his own work I found on Wikipedia: (bold emphasis mine)

"In 1963 I wanted to start painting again but I decided I wasn't going to do abstract pictures". It occurred to me that I should go as far to the opposite as I could. ... It occurred to me that projecting and tracing the photograph instead of copying it freehand would be even more shocking. To copy a photograph literally was considered a bad thing to do. It went against all of my art school training... some people were upset by what I was doing and said 'it's not art, it can't possibly be art'. That gave me encouragement in a perverse way, because I was delighted to be doing something that was really upsetting people... I was having a hell of a lot of fun..." (edited quote from Realists at Work)