Meanings
plural tableaux vivants
- artA tableau (group scene resembling a painting).
Indeed, there is something uncanny about the careful re-enactment of the scene in the manner of a tableau vivant, something that Jean-Luc Godard would also experiment with and try to push to its limits in Passion (1982).
2013, Rob Stone, Julián Daniel Gutiérrez-Albilla, A Companion to Luis Buñuel, John Wiley & Sons, →ISBN
Synonyms & antonyms
Synonym sets from Open English WordNet, CC BY 4.0.
Origin
- Frenchtableau vivant
- Englishtableau vivant
Borrowed from French tableau vivant (literally “living picture”).
More words from French
Full word history & related roots →Cite this entry
tableau vivant. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/tableau%20vivant
“tableau vivant.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/tableau%20vivant. Accessed November 4, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “tableau vivant,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/tableau%20vivant.
Source: tableau vivant on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.