oeuvre

Oeuvre is a noun that designates the complete body of work produced by a person, especially in the arts such as literature, music, painting, cinema, and other creative fields. In criticism and art history, discussing an artist’s oeuvre focuses on the overall development, themes, and significance of their output rather than on individual works.

Etymology: The term comes from the French word oeuvre, meaning "work" or "production," itself derived from Latin opera, meaning "works." In English usage it functions as a borrowed term for a person’s whole production.

Usage and scope: An oeuvre can be considered as the entire career’s output, though scholars often subdivide it into periods or phases (early, mature, late) to analyze stylistic evolution. It is common to speak of a composer’s or writer’s oeuvre as a unified corpus, while still acknowledging notable shifts or shifts in medium. The phrase "the complete oeuvre" or "the late oeuvre" is often used to emphasize a long-term or final phase of production.

Pluralization and nuance: The singular form oeuvre is standard when referring to one artist’s body of work, as in "the oeuvre of Picasso." The plural form, oeuvres, is used when referring to multiple bodies of work or when following the French plural for emphasis, e.g., "the oeuvres of Picasso and Matisse." The term is comparatively formal and is most common in scholarly writing.

See also: Body of work, canon, complete works.