English reputation lies initially in painted artwork (6)
I believe the answer is:
enamel
'painted artwork' is the definition.
'english reputation lies initially' is the wordplay.
'english' becomes 'e' (abbreviation).
'reputation' becomes 'name' (name is a kind of reputation).
'initially' says to take the initial letters.
The first letter of 'lies' is 'l'.
'e'+'name'+'l'='ENAMEL'
'in' acts as a link.
(Other definitions for enamel that I've seen before include "Hard-drying paint" , "Smooth hard paint" , "Hard gloss paint" , "canine protection?" , "Hard type of paint" .)