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Portrait Paintings

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Portrait Paintings For Sale
Style: Impressionist
Style: Post-Impressionist
"Polly in White"
By Rae Sloan Bredin
Located in Lambertville, NJ
Jim’s of Lambertville Fine Art Gallery is proud to offer this piece by Rae Sloan Bredin (1881 - 1933). Rae Sloan Bredin, short lived at only fifty-two years of age, was unquestionab...
Category

20th Century American Impressionist Portrait Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

"Little Fisherman"
By Delbert Coombs
Located in San Antonio, TX
Delbert Coombs (1850 - 1938) Maine Artist Image Size: 12 x 9 Frame Size: 15 x 12 Medium: Oil Dated: 1897 "The Little Fisherman" Biography Delbert Coombs (1850 - 1938) Delbert Dana Coombs was born in Lisbon Falls, Maine, on July 26, 1850. Although primarily self-taught, Coombs took painting lessons from Scott Leighton...
Category

1890s Impressionist Portrait Paintings

Materials

Oil

Woman with Cel Phone
Located in Burlingame, CA
“Mary Robertson’s joyous and meditative paintings are are colorful simulations of contentment and sacred play.” Wayne Thiebaud. Steeped in the Bay Area figurative movement, Mary...
Category

21st Century and Contemporary Pointillist Portrait Paintings

Materials

Linen, Oil

Self Portrait
Located in Sag Harbor, NY
Self-Portrait, painted from life. Thickly applied paint protrudes from the surface on the dark blue shirt, and upon his shining forehead. A shadow veils his eyes and his nose sticks ...
Category

21st Century and Contemporary American Impressionist Portrait Paintings

Materials

Oil

Portrait of a Young Woman, Oil Painting on Canvas by George Kalmar
By Georg Kalmar
Located in Long Island City, NY
Artist: Georg Kalmar (Austrian, 1913-1994) Title: Portrait of a Young Woman Year: circa 1975 Medium: Oil on Canvas Size: 43 in. x 27 in. ...
Category

1970s Impressionist Portrait Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Good Housekeeping cover. Christmas: Child Praying
Located in Miami, FL
Famed female illustrator, Jessie Willcox Smith paints the " Ideal Child" in a spiritual moment for the Christmas cover of Good Housekeeping. The acc...
Category

1910s American Impressionist Portrait Paintings

Materials

Mixed Media

Suzanne Eisendieck "Chapeau Printanier. La Parisienne" Oil Painting on Canvas
Located in Berlin, DE
Oil on canvas, circa 1950, by Suzanne Eisendieck ( 1906-1998 ) Signed lower left: SUZANNE EISENDIECK Dimensions: 22.04 x 17.51 in ( 56 x 44,5 cm ). Framed: 26.37 x 21.45 in ( 67 cm x...
Category

1950s Post-Impressionist Portrait Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Bonnie B. Paint Book Cover
By Elizabeth Voss
Located in Miami, FL
Elizabeth Voss was a top mod-century illustrator at Merrill Company and was a major figure in Children's Art and Children's Illustration Published by Merrill Company Publishers, Co...
Category

1950s Impressionist Portrait Paintings

Materials

Gouache

Mid Century Portrait of Artist Doris Rohr of Carmel
Located in Soquel, CA
Wonderful mid century portrait of Carmel artist Doris Estelle Rohr by listed California artist Abel George (Buck) Warshawsky (American, 1883-1962). Signed "A.G. Warshawsky Dec. 22 52...
Category

1950s American Impressionist Portrait Paintings

Materials

Oil, Masonite

"Frances in Braids"
Located in Lambertville, NJ
Jim’s of Lambertville is proud to offer this artwork. Pastel portrait of artist's granddaughter. Complemented by original signed Harer frame. Illustra...
Category

1930s American Impressionist Portrait Paintings

Materials

Pastel

Oil on Cardboard La Femme au Tir II by Dietz Edzard, 1938
Located in Berlin, DE
Dietz Edzard (German/French 1893-1963) Oil on cardboard, 1938, stamped at lower right with the initials D.E. Framed. Property of the Estate of Dr. Max Stern sold for the benefit of ...
Category

1930s Impressionist Portrait Paintings

Materials

Cardboard, Oil

Woman posing with guitar mixed media painting
Located in Barcelona, Barcelona
Jordi Curós Ventura (1930-2007) - Woman Mixed technique on canvas cardboard. Work measurements 46x38 cm. Frameless. Jordi Curós Ventura (Olot, Girona, March 4, 1930) is a Spanish pa...
Category

1970s Fauvist Portrait Paintings

Materials

Mixed Media

French Impressionist Oil Portrait Crossed Armed Posed Man Wearing A Black Hat
Located in Cirencester, Gloucestershire
Vintage French Oil Painting by Louise Alix (French, 1888-1980) *see notes below provenance stamp to the back oil painting on artist paper stuck on board, unframed measures: 7.5 hig...
Category

Mid-20th Century Impressionist Portrait Paintings

Materials

Oil

Elegante au Parc - French Impressionist School, Figure in Landscape
Located in Marlow, Buckinghamshire
A simply beautiful French Impressionist School oil on canvas of an elegant woman wearing a white blouse and black skirt and hat seated in a chair reading. Her parasol rests against t...
Category

Early 1900s Impressionist Portrait Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

The Light Refreshment - Nabis Oil, Seated Figures in Interior - Edouard Vuillard
Located in Marlow, Buckinghamshire
Signed figurative oil on board circa 1890 by French Nabis school painter Edouard Vuillard. The work depicts two seated ladies dressed in black with grey pinafores enjoying coffee together. Illustrated in the Catalogue Raisonne of Edouard Vuillard by Antoine Salomon and Guy Cogeval - Volume I, Page 229 - Reference IV-7 This striking work dates to between 1890 and 1891 which was without doubt Vuillard’s greatest decade as an artist. At this time the painter was working with the group of artist known as "Les Nabis" which included Pierre Bonnard, Maurice Denis, Paul Ranson, Ker-Xavier Roussel, Félix Vallotton, Paul Sérusier and Auguste Cazalis. The group played a large part in the transition from impressionism and academic art to abstract art, symbolism and the other early movements of modernism. They believed that a work of art was not a depiction of nature, but a synthesis of metaphors and symbols created by the artist. Signature: Signed lower right Dimensions: Framed: 19.25"x20.25" Unframed: 9.25"x10.25" Provenance: Renou et Poyet - Paris Roland, Browse & Delbanco - London (labels verso) c. 1955 The collection of Sir Alec Guinness Galerie Jan Krugier, Geneva - 1972 Nichido Gallery - Tokyo 1972 Private collection - Japan Christie's London - Impressionist & Modern Art - June 2016 Édouard Vuillard attended the Lycée Condorcet in Paris, where he made friends with Maurice Denis, Lugné-Poe, and Ker-Xavier Roussel, later his brother-in-law. He studied in Maillart’s studio; for six weeks came under the tutelage of Jean-Léon Gérôme at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris; and later under William Bouguereau and Robert at the Académie Julian, where he became closely linked with the Nabis group (from the Hebrew word for ‘prophet’). He met Marcel Proust in 1902. From 1908, he taught at the Académie Ranson. In 1937, he was elected member of the Institute. At first, Vuillard painted small subjects, disciplined and proficient, qualities for which the prestigious École Française was famous. His earliest still-lifes (1888) are astonishing in their decisiveness and subtlety. His empathy for the object had already compelled him to soften its appearance; the object, which, by virtue of its bright or glossy presence, remained the nonego and the ‘thing represented’ for so many others. ‘Intimacy’ developed immediately between the painter and this modest environment; inhabiting it every day enabled him to celebrate its splendour, and it was to remain his favourite environment. But he was already alternating between small portraits and still-lifes, which gained recognition because of their natural qualities and dignity of tone: a rare combination in a beginner. About 1890, influenced indirectly by Paul Gauguin, all the certainties which the self-styled Nabis painters had contented themselves with suddenly collapsed. Everything was called into question again: both the linear layout of the picture and its colour scheme; the choice of subject and its material aspect; its manufacture and its purpose. Vuillard’s paintings at that time show surprising, bold innovations and an arbitrary power, which one would expect 15 or 20 years later at the height of the Fauvist period. The preoccupation with an internal geometry set them apart from earlier studies. From then on, the paintings were based on forms, lines, and colours. Vuillard made concessions. He produced a portrait or interior with its furniture and its wallpapers, in which the family inhabiting it, evolves. Treated with flat areas of colour and solid shades of ochres, reds, blues, and saffron yellow, without modulation, they seem to prefigure certain paintings by Henri Matisse and Roger de La Fresnaye. In 1891, Vuillard painted an Elegant Lady, a silhouette seen from the back; a long vertical shape starting from the hair decorated with brown feathers; there is a kind of pink cloak, the tight and never-ending black skirt, erect in front of a half-open, bright orange door in a green wall, from where the light of another vertical shape emerges, which is bright yellow, and is reflected in red on the parquet at the feet of the elegant lady. This painting meets his concerns about the actual moment of creating ‘harmonies corresponding to our feeling’, and by virtue of its almost geometric structure, its drawing entirely free of detail, its light effects and colour harmonies, very much prefigures aspects of the future Abstraction movement and is oddly reminiscent of the final period of Nicolas de Staël. All too often, Vuillard is only admired in his role as the harmonist, the serene contemplator who combines an exquisite sense of nuance, rhythms, and values with the most acute observation. These singular investigations, these three-dimensional meditations including a table, a folding metal cot...
Category

1890s Impressionist Portrait Paintings

Materials

Oil, Board

1929 Oil Painting of Handsome Man from Life Class
Located in Exton, PA
Fine oil painting on canvass depicting 2 views of a handsome man wearing a white shirt, in repose. The painting is oil on canvass by Marion Butler Ewald, Bucks County and Philadelph...
Category

1920s American Impressionist Portrait Paintings

Materials

Oil

1930's French Oil Portrait Atmospheric Moody Atmosphere Lady in Black Dress
Located in Cirencester, Gloucestershire
Jean La Forgue (French 1901-1975) oil on unstretched canvas, unframed painting: 24 x 19 inches provenance: the artists estate, France condition: the painting is on unstretched canvas...
Category

Mid-20th Century Post-Impressionist Portrait Paintings

Materials

Oil

Making Bubbles
By Joseph Henry Hatfield
Located in Missouri, MO
Joseph Henry Hatfield (American, 1863-1928) Making Bubbles Signed Lower Right 16 x 13 inches 23 x 19 inches At the turn of the century, Joseph Henry Hatfield was well known around C...
Category

Early 20th Century Impressionist Portrait Paintings

Materials

Oil, Canvas

Buzzy French Cafe Outside Scene 20th Century French Impressionist Signed Oil
Located in Cirencester, Gloucestershire
The French Cafe signed oil on canvas stuck on board, framed framed: 13 x 9.5 inches canvas: 9.5 x 6.5 inches provenance: private collection, France condition: very good and sound co...
Category

Mid-20th Century Post-Impressionist Portrait Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Finely Painted Antique American School Ballerina Portrait Framed Oil Painting
Located in Buffalo, NY
Antique American impressionist interior scene oil painting. Oil on canvas. Framed. No signature found.
Category

Early 1900s American Impressionist Portrait Paintings

Materials

Oil, Canvas

Woman with pink stockings mixed media painting
Located in Barcelona, Barcelona
Jordi Curós Ventura (1930-2007) - Pink Stockings Mixed media on canvas board. Artwork measures 46x38 cm. Frame measures 50x42 cm. Jordi Curós Ventura (Olo...
Category

1970s Fauvist Portrait Paintings

Materials

Mixed Media

Portrait of a Young Girl holding a Kitten, seated in a Summer Garden
Located in West Sussex, GB
Valentin Danilovitch Bernadski (1917-2011) Ukrainian Portrait of a Young Girl holding a Kitten, seated in a Summer Garden Oil on Canvas: 30 x 25 in. Frame 35 x 30 in. Signed in Cyr...
Category

1980s Impressionist Portrait Paintings

Materials

Oil

Scissor Grinder, Late 19th Century Impressionist Painting
Located in Beachwood, OH
Frederick Carl Gottwald (1858-1941) Scissor Grinder, c. 1897 Oil on canvas Signed lower left 24 x 18 inches 28.5 x 22.5 inches, framed Exhibited: Boston, Massachusetts Art Exhibit, ...
Category

1890s American Impressionist Portrait Paintings

Materials

Oil

Rare Historical Children's Evening Dinner Party Signed Impressionist Painting
Located in Buffalo, NY
Antique American impressionist painting. Watercolor on paper. Signed. Framed. Image size, 14L x 11H.
Category

1890s Impressionist Portrait Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Woman in Hat (Impressionist Oil on Canvas)
Located in New Orleans, LA
A lovely, richly colorful portrait painted with Impressionistic daubs by Polish artist Casimir Caziel (AKA Zielenkiewic). His style evolved over time to be more graphic and Cubistic,...
Category

Mid-20th Century Impressionist Portrait Paintings

Materials

Oil

Léon HERBO Vestale model portrait orientalist oriental woman costume french 19e
Located in PARIS, FR
Léon HERBO Templeuve (Belgium), 1850 – Ixelles, 1907 Oil on panel 46 x 35.5 cm (63 x 45 cm with the frame) Signed at the top right “Léon Herbo” Inscription “A miss Mengal / La vestal...
Category

1880s Impressionist Portrait Paintings

Materials

Oil

"Repose in Viridian" Oil Painting
Located in Denver, CO
Suchitra Bhosle's "Repose in Viridian" is an original, hand made oil painting that depicts a feminine model in a white dress reclining on a background ...
Category

2010s Post-Impressionist Portrait Paintings

Materials

Oil, Panel

Beautiful French Impressionist Oil Provencal Woodland Landscape view, framed
Located in Cirencester, Gloucestershire
Artist/ School: French School, circa 1930's Title: Provencal Landscape view through trees Medium: oil on board, framed Framed: 13.5 x 16.5 inches Board: 10.5 x 13.75 inches Prove...
Category

Early 20th Century Impressionist Portrait Paintings

Materials

Oil

Buste d'homme barbu by Pablo Picasso
Located in New Orleans, LA
Pablo Picasso 1881-1973 Spanish Buste d'homme barbu (Bust of a Bearded Man) Signed "Picasso" (upper right) and dated "8.4.65" (en verso) Oil on canvas Pablo Picasso and his work transcend art history: they have achieved global celebrity within both academic circles and popular culture. More than any other artist, his ever-evolving, evocative style has come to define modern art of the 20th century, and to this day he continues to gain recognition. The most compelling of his works offer a glimpse into the psyche of the master himself, and the present work can be counted among these. Combining saturated color with a jarring simplicity, Buste d'homme barbu represents an important series of bearded men portraits that the artist composed during the last few years of his life. These works are among the most highly personal and intimate of his career, and they serve as remarkable examples of his mature style with their highly modern expressivity. Many of Picasso's works from his last years capture the visage of his wife Jacqueline, who was his chief model during this period. In April, however, at his home studio in Mougins, France, Picasso changed direction and produced a series of individual portraits of men. His male subjects derive from various sources. Often they were self-referential portraits; often they referenced his father, Spanish painter José Ruiz...
Category

20th Century Post-Impressionist Portrait Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

1960's Large French Portrait of Young Blonde Lady, Superb Frame, Signed Oil
Located in Cirencester, Gloucestershire
Artist/ School: Pierre PIGET (1907-1990), French. Signed lower left, dates to the 1960's period. Title: Portrait of a young blonde lady Medium: oil ...
Category

Mid-20th Century Impressionist Portrait Paintings

Materials

Oil

"The Clown", 20th Century Gouache on Cardboard by Spanish Artist Celso Lagar
Located in Madrid, ES
CELSO LAGAR Spanish, 1891 - 1966 THE CLOWN signed and dated "Lagar 52" (lower right) gouache on cardboard 10-5/8 x 8 inches (27 x 20.5 cm.) PROVENANCE Private French Collector Cel...
Category

1950s Fauvist Portrait Paintings

Materials

Gouache, Cardboard

Fine 1890's French Impressionist Oil Painting Elegant Belle Epoque Figures
Located in Cirencester, Gloucestershire
Artist/ School: French School, circa 1890, circle of Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec (French 1864-1901) Title: Elegant Figures dressed for an evening out, typical of the Belle Epoque Styl...
Category

Late 19th Century Impressionist Portrait Paintings

Materials

Oil

Lift Me Up
Located in Miami, FL
Isabelle Scheltjens’ elegant glass portraits celebrate materiality. Growing up with a love of pop art, Scheltjens infused her passion with natural talent and years of education at SI...
Category

2010s Pointillist Portrait Paintings

Materials

Glass, Mosaic

Oula
Located in Miami, FL
Isabelle Scheltjens’ elegant glass portraits celebrate materiality. Growing up with a love of pop art, Scheltjens infused her passion with natural talent and years of education at SI...
Category

2010s Pointillist Portrait Paintings

Materials

Glass, Mosaic

Madonna
Located in Missouri, MO
Madonna by Louis Carl Hvasta (1913-1993) Unframed: 37" x 24" Framed: 47.75" x 34" Signed and Dated Lower Left Frame was Hand Made by the artist himself. A local Californian Artist, ...
Category

20th Century American Impressionist Portrait Paintings

Materials

Panel, Oil

Abe Lincoln
Located in Missouri, MO
Abe Lincoln by Louis Carl Hvasta (1913-1993) Unframed: 24" x 18" Framed: 30.5" x 24.5" Signed and Dated Top Right Frame was Hand Made by the artist himself...
Category

20th Century American Impressionist Portrait Paintings

Materials

Panel, Oil

Pope John 23rd in Cardinal Robe
Located in Missouri, MO
Pope John 23rd in Cardinal Robe by Louis Carl Hvasta (1913-1993) Unframed: 35" x 23" Framed: 43" x 31" Signed and Dated Lower Left Frame was Hand Made by the...
Category

20th Century American Impressionist Portrait Paintings

Materials

Panel, Oil

The Potato Peeler by Meyer Claus
Located in Pasadena, CA
Claus Meyer was a German painter active during the turn of the 20th century. He is best known for his warm depictions of everyday life from the Medieval and Northern Renaissances per...
Category

19th Century Impressionist Portrait Paintings

Materials

Oil

Judaica Oil Painting Chassidic Jewish Rabbi Holding A Sefer Torah Scroll
Located in Surfside, FL
Judaic oil painting by Krakow, Poland born artist Mark Siegband. Signed and framed, An elderly Hasidic rabbi holding a Torah. He is one of many great Jewish Polish artists that included Leopold...
Category

Mid-20th Century Post-Impressionist Portrait Paintings

Materials

Oil

Modern Oil painting of Boys and Girl pointillism by Stevan Kissel
Located in Pasadena, CA
Born in 1932, Stevan Kissel is a listed, award winning painter born in New York City, New York, who eventually relocated to Loa Angeles, California, where he was active in the Los An...
Category

Mid-20th Century American Impressionist Portrait Paintings

Materials

Oil

1940's ENGLISH SIGNED OIL - PORTRAIT OF A LADY IN ELEGANT DRESS - GREENS & PINKS
Located in Cirencester, Gloucestershire
Artist/ School: Frank Graves (British 1913-2001), signed and dated 1946. Title: Portrait of the artists wife. Medium: oil painting on board, unframed. ...
Category

Mid-20th Century Impressionist Portrait Paintings

Materials

Oil

19th Century French Impressionist Period Oil Painting - Portrait of Bearded Man
Located in Cirencester, Gloucestershire
Artist/ School: French School, late 19th century, indistinctly monogrammed upper left corner. Title: Portrait of a Bearded Man Medium: oil painting on canvas laid to board, unframe...
Category

Late 19th Century Impressionist Portrait Paintings

Materials

Oil

English mid- 20th century portrait of a Jazz Musician, circa 1930-40
Located in Woodbury, CT
Outstanding mid-20th-century portrait of a Jazz Musician. Harold Wilfred Yates, was born at West Ham, London on 26 June 1916, son of Wilfred David Yates (7 August 1890-1 April 1958), an amateur artist who worked as a cartoonist for the trade press, and his wife Elizabeth née Biggs (7 March 1890-3 September 1959), who married at West Ham in 1915. Harold studied for 18 months at Portsmouth School of Art 1930-1931 after which he joined a commercial studio as a figure painter but became disillusioned with the disciplines and began to paint abstract works in his spare time. He exhibited with the Artists International Association and the London Gallery...
Category

1930s Impressionist Portrait Paintings

Materials

Oil

"Portrait of little girl" Oil cm. 20 x 20 children, pink, russia
Located in Torino, IT
children, pink, russia,little girl GLEB SAVINOV (Charkev, 1915 – St. Petersburg, 2000) Works by Gleb Savinov can be found in various private collections in Europe, Japan, United S...
Category

1980s Impressionist Portrait Paintings

Materials

Oil

French Watercolour Breton School Mid 20th Century Fisherman
Located in Cirencester, Gloucestershire
Breton Fisherman by Henri Miloch (1898-1979) signed lower right edge watercolour painting, with gouache and some graphite on artist's paper, unframed measurement of frameable image...
Category

1960s Impressionist Portrait Paintings

Materials

Watercolor, Gouache, Graphite

Portrait d"une Bourgeoise Parisienne
Located in Paris, FR
French Post Impressionist Portrait of Madame, an elegant portrait made before the 2nd World War showing a Parisian burgeoise lady by that time . Big dimension.
Category

1930s Post-Impressionist Portrait Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Wood, Oil

"Easter Hat" Impressionist Portrait of a Woman
Located in Houston, TX
Portrait of a women in a red dress with a straw hat. The portrait is in the style of famous Italian painter Amedeo Modigliani. The work is signed by the artist, titled and dated. Dim...
Category

1980s Impressionist Portrait Paintings

Materials

Oil

Young Boy with Hat
Located in Long Island City, NY
An impressionist portrait of a young boy in winter wear. Artist: Laurent Marcel Salinas, French (1913 - 2010) Title: Young Boy with Hat Medium: Oil on C...
Category

1970s Impressionist Portrait Paintings

Materials

Oil, Canvas

Red Shawl
Located in Sofia, BG
"Red Shawl" is an impressionist painting, oil on linen by Maestro Iryna Kalyuzhna. The painting is unframed. “The impressions of Maestro Iryna Kalyuzhna's...
Category

2010s Impressionist Portrait Paintings

Materials

Linen, Oil

Young British Woman, the Ellis Island Series, Laurent Marcel Salinas
Located in Long Island City, NY
Artist: Laurent Marcel Salinas, French (1913 - 2010) Title: Young British Woman from the Ellis island Series, 1005 Medium: Oil on Canvas, signed and dated Image Size: 23 x 17.5 inche...
Category

1990s Impressionist Portrait Paintings

Materials

Oil, Canvas

Italian Man from the Ellis Island Series by Laurent Marcel Salinas
Located in Long Island City, NY
Artist: Laurent Marcel Salinas, French (1913 - 2010) Title: Italian Man from the Ellis island Series, 985 Medium: Oil on Canvas, signed Size: 24 x 18 inches
Category

1990s Impressionist Portrait Paintings

Materials

Oil, Canvas

Large Reclining Nude Female
Located in Houston, TX
Lovely large reclining nude female painting by artist Oris Robertson. Artist Biography: Oris Robertson was a prolific visual artist, he started ...
Category

20th Century Impressionist Portrait Paintings

Materials

Oil

Young Vincent
Located in Brecon, Powys
A portrait of the artist long before his fractured life ended. Here we see the freshness & purity of the young van Gogh. An elemental lightness suffuses the piece in symbolic represe...
Category

21st Century and Contemporary Impressionist Portrait Paintings

Materials

Oil

Auto Portrait
Located in West Hollywood, CA
Presenting a lovely self portrait by Swiss artist Juliette Calame’. “Auto-Portrait” is an original vintage oil on panel, signed, c.1925, with an image dimension of 29 x 19.5 inches.
Category

1920s Impressionist Portrait Paintings

Materials

Panel, 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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