Portrait Paintings
20th Century Modern Portrait Paintings
Watercolor
2010s Impressionist Portrait Paintings
Oil
Mid-20th Century Impressionist Portrait Paintings
Ink, Paper, Watercolor, Gouache
Late 20th Century Portrait Paintings
Oil
2010s Street Art Portrait Paintings
Mixed Media, Pigment, Archival Pigment
2010s Portrait Paintings
Oil
2010s Contemporary Portrait Paintings
Canvas, India Ink, Acrylic
2010s Portrait Paintings
Oil
Mid-20th Century Abstract Portrait Paintings
Pen
2010s Cubist Portrait Paintings
Acrylic, Canvas
2010s Cubist Portrait Paintings
Acrylic, Canvas
2010s Abstract Expressionist Portrait Paintings
Acrylic
2010s Street Art Portrait Paintings
Spray Paint
Early 2000s Photorealist Portrait Paintings
Acrylic
Late 20th Century Neo-Expressionist Portrait Paintings
Mixed Media
2010s Portrait Paintings
Mixed Media
2010s Cubist Portrait Paintings
Acrylic, Canvas
2010s Contemporary Portrait Paintings
Paper, Charcoal, Oil Pastel, Oil
1940s Portrait Paintings
Pastel
21st Century and Contemporary Impressionist Portrait Paintings
Oil, Canvas
21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Portrait Paintings
Canvas, Oil
Early 2000s Contemporary Portrait Paintings
Acrylic, Paper
Early 2000s Contemporary Portrait Paintings
Acrylic, Paper
2010s Portrait Paintings
Mixed Media
1990s Portrait Paintings
Canvas, Acrylic
Late 20th Century Contemporary Portrait Paintings
Board, Mixed Media
2010s Portrait Paintings
Mixed Media
21st Century and Contemporary Pop Art Portrait Paintings
Canvas, Mixed Media
1960s Realist Portrait Paintings
Oil, Canvas
21st Century and Contemporary Abstract Expressionist Portrait Paintings
Oil
21st Century and Contemporary Pop Art Portrait Paintings
Acrylic, Canvas, Mixed Media
21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Portrait Paintings
Linen, Oil
2010s Contemporary Portrait Paintings
Canvas, Oil
2010s Contemporary Portrait Paintings
Canvas, Oil
2010s Cubist Portrait Paintings
Acrylic, Canvas
2010s Pop Art Portrait Paintings
Mixed Media, Spray Paint, Acrylic, Stencil
2010s Pop Art Portrait Paintings
Mixed Media, Spray Paint, Acrylic, Stencil
2010s Contemporary Portrait Paintings
Acrylic
21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Portrait Paintings
Acrylic, Archival Paper
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.