Portrait Paintings
2010s Contemporary Portrait Paintings
Paper, Mixed Media, Acrylic, Screen
2010s Cubist Portrait Paintings
Canvas, Acrylic
2010s Contemporary Portrait Paintings
Archival Paper, Ink
2010s Other Art Style Portrait Paintings
Canvas, Paper, Cotton Canvas, Archival Ink, Ink, Pencil
2010s Contemporary Portrait Paintings
Paper, Mixed Media, Acrylic, Screen
2010s Portrait Paintings
Oil
2010s Realist Portrait Paintings
Paper, Archival Paper, Pencil, Canvas, Cotton Canvas, Archival Ink
21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Portrait Paintings
Silver
21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Portrait Paintings
Silver
2010s Contemporary Portrait Paintings
Resin, Plexiglass
2010s Contemporary Portrait Paintings
Screen, Paper, Mixed Media, Acrylic
21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Portrait Paintings
Silver
21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Portrait Paintings
Silver
21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Portrait Paintings
Silver
21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Portrait Paintings
Silver
2010s Contemporary Portrait Paintings
Ink, Archival Ink, Archival Paper, Pencil, Archival Pigment, Canvas, Paper
21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Portrait Paintings
Silver
21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Portrait Paintings
Silver
21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Portrait Paintings
Silver
2010s Contemporary Portrait Paintings
Canvas, Paper, Cotton Canvas, Archival Ink, Oil, Acrylic
2010s Contemporary Portrait Paintings
Paper, Mixed Media, Acrylic, Screen
2010s Contemporary Portrait Paintings
Oil
2010s Contemporary Portrait Paintings
Acrylic
2010s Contemporary Portrait Paintings
Paper, Cotton Canvas, Ink, Archival Ink, Archival Paper, Canvas
2010s Contemporary Portrait Paintings
Paper, Ink, Archival Ink, Archival Paper, Pencil
2010s Contemporary Portrait Paintings
Paper, Mixed Media, Acrylic, Screen
2010s Contemporary Portrait Paintings
Paper, Mixed Media, Acrylic, Screen
21st Century and Contemporary Portrait Paintings
Oil
2010s Contemporary Portrait Paintings
Ink, Pencil, Archival Ink, Archival Paper, Archival Pigment
2010s Contemporary Portrait Paintings
Mixed Media, Archival Ink, Acrylic, Archival Paper, Postcard, Screen
2010s Contemporary Portrait Paintings
Mixed Media, Archival Ink, Acrylic, Archival Paper, Archival Pigment, Po...
2010s Contemporary Portrait Paintings
Canvas, Paper, Cotton Canvas, Archival Paper, Ink, Pencil, Archival Ink
Mid-19th Century French School Portrait Paintings
Oil
2010s Contemporary Portrait Paintings
Canvas, Paper, Ink, Archival Ink, Archival Paper, Pencil, Archival Pigment
2010s Contemporary Portrait Paintings
Canvas, Paper, Ink, Archival Ink, Archival Paper, Pencil, Archival Pigment
2010s Portrait Paintings
Oil
2010s Contemporary Portrait Paintings
Canvas, Paper, Archival Ink, Archival Paper, Ink, Pencil
2010s Contemporary Portrait Paintings
Pencil, Archival Ink, Archival Paper, Canvas, Cotton Canvas, Ink
21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Portrait Paintings
Mixed Media
21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Portrait Paintings
Mixed Media
Early 2000s Contemporary Portrait Paintings
Canvas, Oil
21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Portrait Paintings
Canvas, Oil, Acrylic
1940s Modern Portrait Paintings
Oil, Canvas
Late 19th Century Impressionist Portrait Paintings
Oil
2010s Contemporary Portrait Paintings
Acrylic, Screen, Paper, Mixed Media
2010s Contemporary Portrait Paintings
Acrylic, Mixed Media
2010s Neo-Expressionist Portrait Paintings
Oil, Acrylic
2010s Contemporary Portrait Paintings
Acrylic, Canvas
1950s Modern Portrait Paintings
Paper, Pastel
2010s Contemporary Portrait Paintings
Oil, Canvas, Laid Paper, Photographic Paper, Stretcher Bars
1940s Realist Portrait Paintings
Oil
2010s Portrait Paintings
Oil, Canvas
2010s Contemporary Portrait Paintings
Textile, Thread, Plexiglass, Mixed Media, Wood Panel
2010s Contemporary Portrait Paintings
Textile, Thread, Plexiglass, Mixed Media, Wood Panel
2010s Contemporary Portrait Paintings
Glass, Mixed Media
18th Century Baroque Portrait Paintings
Canvas, Oil
21st Century and Contemporary Abstract Expressionist Portrait Paintings
Acrylic, Charcoal
21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Portrait Paintings
Mixed Media
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.
Read More
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.