Portrait Paintings
2010s Contemporary Portrait Paintings
Canvas, Pastel, India Ink, Mixed Media, Acrylic
Artist Comments
The portrait draws inspiration from a series called Queens at Home by photographer Jan Klos. It portrays a drag queen with a sketch-like quality on the surface,...
21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Portrait Paintings
Oil
2010s Pop Art Portrait Paintings
Wood, Spray Paint, Acrylic
2010s Impressionist Portrait Paintings
Canvas, Oil
20th Century Impressionist Portrait Paintings
Oil
1840s Romantic Portrait Paintings
Oil
Artist Comments
A girl carries freshly picked daisies as she walks through a meadow. The beauty of the flowers, the clear sky, and her presence convey peace and a deep connecti...
21st Century and Contemporary Realist Portrait Paintings
Oil
2010s Pop Art Portrait Paintings
Wood, Spray Paint, Acrylic
17th Century Old Masters Portrait Paintings
Parchment Paper, Oil, Wood Panel
1870s Pre-Raphaelite Portrait Paintings
Oil
2010s Neo-Expressionist Portrait Paintings
Permanent Marker
18th Century Portrait Paintings
Oil, Canvas
2010s Contemporary Portrait Paintings
Plaster, Wood, Ink, Watercolor
Artist Comments
A young woman walks through a myriad of water lilies, her illuminated figure contrasting sharply with the dark lake. Her posture and radiant hair create a feeli...
21st Century and Contemporary Realist Portrait Paintings
Oil
Late 19th Century Realist Portrait Paintings
Oil
Early 20th Century Portrait Paintings
Oil, Canvas
Artist Comments
In a serene setting, a female figure clad in a white gown gracefully balances herself while holding onto a branch. Her steady, down-turned gaze suggests a momen...
21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Portrait Paintings
Oil
Late 19th Century Impressionist Portrait Paintings
Oil
Artist Comments
A woman holds a vintage telephone to her ear and dons a hat reminiscent of Jackie O, exuding the quintessential beauty of a 1950s figure. Artist Malia Pettit no...
21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Portrait Paintings
Oil
21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Portrait Paintings
Canvas, Oil Pastel, Mixed Media, Acrylic
Early 20th Century Portrait Paintings
Canvas, Oil
Artist Comments
A delicate woman steps into a lake, poised to swim among the water lilies. With soft tones and a calm atmosphere, the scene conveys serenity and harmony with na...
21st Century and Contemporary Realist Portrait Paintings
Oil
20th Century Impressionist Portrait Paintings
Oil
1970s Abstract Portrait Paintings
Oil
2010s Contemporary Portrait Paintings
Lacquer, Cotton Canvas, Acrylic
Mid-18th Century Rococo Portrait Paintings
Canvas, Oil
Early 19th Century Other Art Style Portrait Paintings
Canvas, Oil
21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Portrait Paintings
Oil, Canvas, Acrylic
16th Century Portrait Paintings
Canvas, Oil
2010s Realist Portrait Paintings
Panel, Oil
2010s Contemporary Portrait Paintings
Canvas, Oil
21st Century and Contemporary Portrait Paintings
Canvas, Acrylic
2010s Contemporary Portrait Paintings
Canvas, Oil
2010s Contemporary Portrait Paintings
Canvas, Oil
19th Century Impressionist Portrait Paintings
Oil
21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Portrait Paintings
Acrylic
21st Century and Contemporary Portrait Paintings
Canvas, Acrylic
2010s Contemporary Portrait Paintings
Lacquer, Cotton Canvas, Acrylic
2010s Contemporary Portrait Paintings
Canvas, Oil, Acrylic
18th Century Portrait Paintings
Canvas, Oil
2010s Contemporary Portrait Paintings
Canvas, Oil
1970s Fauvist Portrait Paintings
Mixed Media
21st Century and Contemporary Expressionist Portrait Paintings
Canvas, Acrylic
17th Century Old Masters Portrait Paintings
Wood Panel, Oil
16th Century Portrait Paintings
Copper
2010s Expressionist Portrait Paintings
Canvas, Mixed Media, Acrylic
2010s Impressionist Portrait Paintings
Oil
1960s Modern Portrait Paintings
Oil
Mid-18th Century Rococo Portrait Paintings
Canvas, Oil
17th Century Old Masters Portrait Paintings
Oil
16th Century Portrait Paintings
Oil, Wood Panel
21st Century and Contemporary Impressionist Portrait Paintings
Canvas, Acrylic
21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Portrait Paintings
Canvas, Chalk, Oil Pastel, Acrylic
17th Century Baroque Portrait Paintings
Canvas, Oil
2010s Contemporary Portrait Paintings
Ink, Acrylic, Watercolor
Late 19th Century Impressionist Portrait Paintings
Oil
21st Century and Contemporary Impressionist Portrait Paintings
Canvas, Acrylic
1720s Old Masters Portrait Paintings
Oil
Shop Antique and Vintage Portrait Paintings
An elegant and sophisticated decorative touch in any living space, portrait paintings have remained popular throughout the years and are widely loved pieces of art for display in many homes today.
Portrait paintings are at least as old as ancient Egypt, where realistic, lifelike depictions of the recently deceased — commonly known as “mummy portraits” — were painted on wooden panels and affixed to mummies as part of the burial tradition.
For centuries, painters have used portraiture as a means of expressing a subject’s nobility, societal status and authority. Portraits were given as gifts in Renaissance Europe, and a portrait artist might have been commissioned to help mark a significant occasion such as a wedding or a promotion to high office. Prior to the advent of photography, which eventually replaced painted portraits as a quicker and more efficient way of capturing a person’s essence, the subject of a portrait had to sit for hours until the painter had finished. And during the 18th century in particular, if an artist commissioned for a portrait struggled with how to adequately memorialize and capture a subject’s likeness, sometimes a portrait painting wasn’t completed for up to a year.
Whether it’s part of the gallery-style approach to your living-room or dining-room walls or merely inspiration as you devise an eye-grabbing color scheme in your home, a portrait painting is a timeless decorative object for any interior. A landscape painting or sculpture might give you the kind of insight into a specific region of the world or a different culture that you can ascertain only through art. Similarly, when you take the time to learn about the subject of a portrait painting that you bring into your home — the sitter’s history, the relationship between the sitter and the artist should one exist, the story of how the portrait came to be — that work can become intensely personal in addition to its place as an object for an art-hungry corner of your apartment or house.
On 1stDibs, visit a vast collection of famous portrait paintings or works by emerging artists. Search by medium to find the right portrait paintings for your home in oil paint, synthetic resin paint and more. Find portrait paintings in a variety of styles, too, including contemporary, Impressionist and Pop art, or search by artist to find unique works created by painters such as Mark Beard, Steve Kaufman and Montse Valdés.
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Cecilia Vicuña Merges Politics, Science and Spirituality in Her Poetic Art
The Chilean creator, who has been living in exile in New York for decades, is having a major moment, receiving the biggest exhibitions, commissions and awards an artist could dream of.
In Christopher Spitzmiller’s New York Homes, His Love of Dogs Is on Full Display
The ceramist, designer and gentleman farmer tells us about the collection of antique dog art he has spread across a New York City apartment and a Greek Revival farmhouse in the Hudson Valley.
This Wiener Werkstätte Master Made Everything into Art
Koloman Moser smashed the conservative conventions of art and design in fin-de-siècle Vienna. On the 100th anniversary of his death, the Austrian designer is being celebrated for his radically modern creations.
A Rare Q&A with American Legend Alex Katz
On the eve of a new exhibition just north of New York City, the nonagenarian contemporary-art icon talked with ‘Introspective’ about his long and ongoing career, the development of his signature style and his rather malleable definition of realism.