Beaux-arts

noting or pertaining to a style of architecture, popularly -ssociated with the école des beaux-arts in paris, that prevailed in france in the late 19th century and that was adopted in the u.s. and elsewhere c1900, characterized by the free and eclectic use and adaptation of french architectural features of the 16th through 18th centuries combined so as to give a m-ssive, elaborate, and often ostentatious effect, and also by the use of symmetrical plans preferably allowing vast amounts of interior sp-ce.
resembling the architecture, architectural precepts, or teaching methods of the ecole des beaux-arts in paris: often used in a pejorative sense to designate excessive formalism disregarding considerations of structural truth, advanced aesthetic theory, rational planning, or economy.
(lowercase) the fine arts, as painting or music.
contemporary examples

drawing had been his first devotion, but he shifts to photography when he enters the beaux-arts de paris.
must-reads: ‘the fat years,’ ‘drifting house,’ and ‘the map and the territory’ isaac stone fish, anna clark, cameron martin january 29, 2012

historical examples

no. 160 was the restaurant now razed where thackeray, when a young student at the beaux-arts, took his meals.
historic paris jetta s. wolff

so are made the belles-lettres and the beaux-arts and their professors.
walden, and on the duty of civil disobedience henry david th-r-au

in his opinion, it would have been more suitable to exhibit such works in a bar-room than at the beaux-arts.
grme albert keim

until then the house had been temporarily under the direction of the beaux-arts.
my recollections jules m-ssenet

in 1833 he gained the prix de rome at the cole des beaux-arts for designing a military school.
encyclopaedia britannica, 11th edition, volume 3, part 1, slice 2 various

this is according to m. rivet’s report on the beaux-arts in 1906.
musicians of to-day romain rolland

he took part in a compet-tion for admission to the beaux-arts, and failed.
paris and the social revolution alvan francis sanborn

he escaped early from the cole des beaux-arts, and, of course, came under the influence of courbet.
since czanne clive bell

his life so fitted for pleasure and the beaux-arts became a combat which never ceased.
beaumarchais and the war of american independence vol. 1 of 2 elizabeth s. kite

plural noun
another word for fine art
(modifier) relating to the cl-ssical decorative style, esp that of the école des beaux-arts in paris: beaux-arts influences