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Portrait Paintings For Sale
Period: 1930s
Period: 1920s
Portrait of Caroline and her Puppets - British 1930s theatrical art oil painting
Located in London, GB
This superb Royal Academy exhibited portrait oil painting is by British artist James Cleaver ARCA. It was painted in 1937 and exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1939 entitled 'Carolin...
Category

1930s Realist Portrait Paintings

Materials

Oil

Girl with glasses. Circa 1920. Double portrait. Spalmach Gino (Rome, 1900-1966)
Located in Firenze, IT
Girl with glasses. About 1920-30. Double portrait. Spalmach Gino (Rome, 1900 - 1966). Painted on two sides: on one side the young woman with glasses is represented, in charcoal/penci...
Category

1920s Art Deco Portrait Paintings

Materials

Oil, Cardboard

Portrait of Two Seated Nude Women - British Modernist 1930's oil painting
Located in London, GB
This lovely British Modernist portrait oil painting is by noted artist Lionel Ellis. The painting comes from a collection of works by the artist, previously owned by his wife. Painte...
Category

1930s Modern Portrait Paintings

Materials

Oil

Portrait of Wien
Located in Genève, GE
Work on wood Golden wooden frame 54 x 47 x 4 cm
Category

1920s Portrait Paintings

Materials

Oil

Self Portrait #4 with Varnish Bottle, 1934
Located in Franklin, MI
An early self portrait of the artist signed lower right---Provenance: purchased directly from the artist in 1989
Category

1930s Modern Portrait Paintings

Materials

Oil

Portrait of Elizabeth Exley - British Art Deco 1930's portrait oil painting
Located in London, GB
This lovely British Art Deco portrait oil painting is by noted artist James Robert Granville Exley and provenance is by family descent. The sitter is Elizabeth Exley, possibly his wi...
Category

1930s Art Deco Portrait Paintings

Materials

Oil

Vintage American Impressionist Taos School New Mexico Framed Portrait Painting
Located in Buffalo, NY
Antique American impressionist portrait oil painting. Oil on canvas. Framed. No signature found.
Category

1930s Impressionist Portrait Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Portrait of a little girl
Located in Genève, GE
Work on wood
Category

1930s Portrait Paintings

Materials

Oil

Exotic - Scottish 1920's exhibited 'Glasgow Girl' art portrait oil painting
Located in London, GB
This stunning much exhibited 1920's Scottish portrait oil painting is by noted Glasgow Girl artist Norah Nielson Gray. Painted circa 1923, the model for the painting was Rita McIlraith but the artist did not want to use her name in the title and it was called 'Exotic.' Norah Neilson Gray...
Category

1920s Art Deco Portrait Paintings

Materials

Oil

Reclining nude - British Art Deco 30s female portrait oil painting female artist
By Dora Crockett
Located in London, GB
A stunning exhibited 1934 nude female portrait by Dora Crocket (Countess Lewenhaupt). The portrait depicts a nude woman reclining in a sensual pose against a background of red and bl...
Category

1930s Art Deco Portrait Paintings

Materials

Oil

"Unemployed" WPA American Scene Social Realism Mid 20th Century Modern
Located in New York, NY
"Unemployed" WPA American Scene Social Realism Mid 20th Century Modern William Gropper (1898 - 1977) Unemployed 20 x 16 inches Oil on canvas, 1937 Signed lower right Provenance: E...
Category

1930s American Realist Portrait Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

"The Artist's Portrait'
Located in West Hollywood, CA
Presenting a magnificent, early original pastel, "The Artist's Portrait", by American artist Robert McIntosh. "The Artist's Portrait", is an original pastel on artist's paper, signed, dated 1937, 13 x 9.75, currently unframed, the portrait was acquired directly from the personal collection of the artist. We have included the artist's biography below please contact the gallery for additional information, Robert McIntosh (1916-2010) Robert McIntosh was born on March 11, 1916 near San Francisco, in Vallejo, California, the second son of Harry and Jesusita Coronado McIntosh. He found his lifelong passion for painting by the time he was ten years old and never swayed from his calling. The family moved to Stockton when Robert was 12. Their home was just six blocks from the newly opened Haggin Museum, filled with a treasure trove of European and American paintings. He became particularly enamored with the fine examples of 19th century French pastoral landscapes. As teens, Robert and his brother Harrison befriended local painter Arthur Haddock who taught them the craft of art and brought them along on outdoor painting trips. Robert also became skilled at drawing portraits that captured the subject's personality. Soon, the sheer joy of expressing himself this way became a consuming interest. ​When not sketching, McIntosh would wander the stacks of books at the public library, discovering and studying the Masters - in particular, Michelangelo, Rembrandt and Whistler. At a Gauguin exhibit at the Legion of Honor in San Francisco, Robert discovered a "whole new world of color" and the importance of designing the space in the eternal rectangle. "I envision a frame around everything I see, "he admitted. "The artists' challenge is to put something meaningful, interesting or beautiful in that space." ​In 1934 McIntosh won a competition for a scholarship to the Art Center School of Design, the first award they ever bestowed. The entire family moved to Los Angeles and a new vista opened to the young artist, both visually and culturally. Robert began to take on portrait commissions and had exhibitions at the San Francisco Museum of Art, The Oakland Museum of Art and the Crocker Museum of Art in Sacramento. During the Great Depression, Robert began to work at Disney Studios painting backgrounds for such classics as "Fantasia". Ron Barbagallo, of Animation Art...
Category

1930s Realist Portrait Paintings

Materials

Oil Pastel

Portrait of Jean Young
Located in East Grinstead, GB
Alfred Neville Lewis 1895-1972, was a South African born artist who painted in both England and South Africa. This painting, on panel, is of another artist Jean Young who Lewis knew...
Category

1930s Portrait Paintings

Materials

Oil, Board

Herman Jensen, A Musician, Oil Painting
Located in Cheltenham, GB
This enchanting early 20th-century oil painting by Danish artist Herman Jensen (1893-1941) depicts a seated woman playing the banjo before a window. Scenes with musicians are most f...
Category

1920s Impressionist Portrait Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Art Deco Fashion Illustration Ink and Gouache Drawing by Edouard Halouze
Located in Atlanta, GA
This is an Art Deco original illustration drawing, hand-painted with ink and gouache on paper, designed by French artist Edouard Halouze. The artwork features two stylish female mode...
Category

1920s Art Deco Portrait Paintings

Materials

Ink, Gouache

Nude Female Portrait - Susannah - British 20's Impressionist art oil painting
Located in London, GB
This charming oil on canvas Impressionist painting is by British artist Philip Wilson Steer and has excellent provenance. The painting is circa 1920 and of a demure seated nude young...
Category

1920s Impressionist Portrait Paintings

Materials

Oil

Portrait of a Seated Girl in Blue - British 1930's art portrait oil painting
Located in London, GB
This lovely British portrait oil painting is by noted artist Lionel Ellis. The painting comes from a collection of works by the artist, previously owned by his wife. Painted circa 19...
Category

1930s Realist Portrait Paintings

Materials

Oil

Balinese Pottery Market
Located in London, GB
'Balinese Pottery Market', oil on canvas, by Régine van den Broek d'Obrenan (1931). The artist visited Bali in 1931 (among other islands) with her new husband, Charles. The naive pai...
Category

1930s Portrait Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Antique Paris School Early 1900's French Impressionist Portrait Oil Painting
Located in Buffalo, NY
Antique French impressionist portrait oil painting of two young girls. Oil on board. No signature found. Framed. Image size, 10L x 18H.
Category

1920s Impressionist Portrait Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Antique American Southern Bell Female Portrait Oil Painting 1920
Located in Douglas Manor, NY
4096 A 1920's oil painting on canvas of an elegant southern lady .Artist unknown. Unframed
Category

1920s Portrait Paintings

Materials

Oil

French Lady in Waiting Female Portrait
Located in Douglas Manor, NY
4070 French oil painting Lady in Waiting by Alfreda Klebe
Category

1920s Portrait Paintings

Materials

Oil

Modernist Nude Portrait by Henri Burkhard
By Henri Burkhard
Located in Larchmont, NY
Henri Burkhard, Born in New York in 1892, began his studies at the Art Students league in New York and then pursued international studies at the Académie Julian, Acadêmie Colarissi, and Académie de la Grande Chaumière, Pariss. Once the artist returned to New York, he began to exhibit frequently frequently at the Whitney Museum of American Art in 1926-36; the Corcoran Gallery, Art Institute of Chicago, and the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts in the 1930's. Works by the artist have been handled and sold over the last hundred years at major American auction houses and dealers, such as Heritage...
Category

1930s Fauvist Portrait Paintings

Materials

Oil, Wood Panel

Charles PICART LE DOUX, Model on Green Background, Oil on Isorel, 1949
Located in Saint Amans des cots, FR
Oil on isorel panel by Charles PICART LE DOUX (1881-1959), France, 1949. Model on green background. With frame: 97.5x76.5 cm - 38.4x30.1 inches ; without frame: 81x60cm - 31.9x23.6 i...
Category

1930s Post-Impressionist Portrait Paintings

Materials

Oil

Portrait of Helene Sardeau (The Artist’s Wife)
Located in Los Angeles, CA
(Note: This work is part of our exhibition Connected by Creativity: WPA Era Works from the Collection of Leata and Edward Beatty Rowan) Fresco, 20 x 16 inches unframed, 22 x 18 inch...
Category

1930s American Modern Portrait Paintings

Materials

Mixed Media, Plaster

Portrait of Chinese Couple. Pearl S. Buck Tiger Tiger Illustration Cosmopolitan
Located in Miami, FL
Among the many accolades I would grant Dean Cornwell, the one that rises to the top would be that he is one of America's greatest portrait painters. With a few strokes, he captures h...
Category

1930s American Realist Portrait Paintings

Materials

Gouache

Oil Painting by Erwin Eichinger "The Cardinal"
Located in Mere, GB
For sale is this oil painting on board by Erwin Eichinger "The Cardinal" 1892-1950 Member of the popular Austrian family of figurative artists who painted Tyrolean...
Category

1930s Portrait Paintings

Materials

Oil

Lesendes Mädchen
Located in Wien, 9
The extensive work of Vilma Eckl covers a period of more than seventy years. Her incomparable artistic talent and her essential contribution to the history of art can be seen in her ...
Category

1920s Modern Portrait Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

1920's French Portrait of Man with Moustache Signed & Dated Oil on Canvas
Located in Cirencester, Gloucestershire
Portrait of a Man French School signed and dated 1923 oil painting on canvas, unframed canvas: 16 x 13 inches provenance: private collection, France condition: good and sound conditi...
Category

1920s Impressionist Portrait Paintings

Materials

Oil, Canvas

Bauernkinder
Located in Wien, 9
The extensive work of Vilma Eckl covers a period of more than seventy years. Her incomparable artistic talent and her essential contribution to the history of art can be seen in her ...
Category

1920s Modern Portrait Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Antique American School Signed Mediterranean Woman Dog Portrait Oil Painting
Located in Buffalo, NY
Antique American signed modernist oil painting. Oil on canvas. Signed. Framed. Image size, 30L x 42H.
Category

1930s Modern Portrait Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Carlotta
Located in Palm Desert, CA
A painting by Georges Rouault. “Carlotta” is an oil on canvas portrait painting in a palette of blues, yellows, blacks, and pinks by expressionist artist Georges Rouault. The artwork...
Category

1930s Impressionist Portrait Paintings

Materials

Oil, Canvas

The Russian Model
Located in Milford, NH
A wonderful large self portrait of the artist with a Russian model by American artist Pauline Lennards Palmer (1867-1938). Born in McHenry, Illinois, Palmer studied at the Art Institute of Chicago between 1893 and 1898, including a one-month session with William Merritt Chase in 1897, and further temporary instruction with Frank Duveneck. She became one of Chicago's early twentieth-century portrait and landscape painters and one of the Midwest's most active and energetic exponents of impressionism. After her career was well established, she moved to Provincetown and studied with Charles Hawthorne...
Category

1930s American Impressionist Portrait Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil, Board

Portrait oil on canvas painting Gines Parra Spain
By Ginés Parra
Located in Barcelona, Barcelona
Oil measures 41x33 cm. Frame measures 53x45 cm. Thanks to Mr. José Manuel Marín for confirming and dating the work (1930s). Ginés Parra (Zurgena, Almería, January 24, 1896 - Paris, April 19, 1960), whose real name was José Antonio Ramón Parra Menchón, was a Spanish painter. His family emigrated to Tlemcen, in Algeria, in 1901. There he spent his childhood and puberty and worked with his father as a miner. After several trips through Argentina and other South American countries, made between 1910 and 1916, he moved to the United States. He worked in some copper mines in Arizona to later settle in Los Angeles and soon moved to New York, where he began to receive classes at the Art Students League of New York. Later he began his art studies at the National Academy School of Fine Arts in the Big Apple, although he was forced to continue working on the subway and as a waiter to survive. Around 1920 he settled in Paris, in a studio in the Montparnasse neighborhood, to continue his training at the École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts. In the early days he continued, as always, working outside of art, this time as a car wash and store boy. However, soon after, during the golden years of art in the city, he was already dealing with other painters such as Pablo Picasso, Julio González or Manuel Ángeles Ortiz...
Category

1930s Expressionist Portrait Paintings

Materials

Oil, Canvas

On the Back Porch, Brecksville, Ohio, Early 20th Century Cleveland School
Located in Beachwood, OH
Frank Nelson Wilcox (American, 1887-1964) On the Back Porch, Brecksville, Ohio, c. 1922 Watercolor on paper Monogram lower right 21.5 x 27. 5 inc...
Category

1920s American Modern Portrait Paintings

Materials

Watercolor

Blond and Blue Eyed Ballerina in Tutu against Chinese Screen
Located in Miami, FL
Prolific Saturday Evening Post Cover Illustrator Pearl L. Hill Worthington paints a stunning portrait of a Ballerina in a tutu with underlighting. She sits on a decorative Chinese ...
Category

1920s American Realist Portrait Paintings

Materials

Oil, Canvas

1939 Mexican Farm Worker WPA Artist Adolf Dehn American Modern Gouache Painting
Located in Surfside, FL
ADOLF ARTHUR DEHN (American, 1895-1969) Portrait of Mexican Man with Agave Cactus plant, 1939, Gouache Painting Hand signed and dated '39 lower left. Whitney Museum of American Art, N.Y. Label verso sight: 20.5 in. X 15 in. Frame is 32 X 24 inches This was subsequently made into a lithograph in 1941 titled Man From Orizaba Standing in the foreground of an agave field is man wearing a straw hat, a white button up collared shirt, white pants and sandals. The man has shaggy black hair, a beard and moustache and large eyes. His right hand is clenched as if holding something and his left hand is open holding some flower-like objects. He stands in the middle of a large agave plant that expands the width of the composition. In the middle ground are large agave plants in subsequent rows. Behind the agave plantation is a mountain range with snow covered peak on the right hand side. Above the mountain range is a partially cloudy sky. Adolf Dehn (November 22, 1895 – May 19, 1968) was an American artist known mainly as a lithographer. Throughout his artistic career, he participated in and helped define some important movements in American art, including regionalism, social realism, and caricature. A two-time recipient of the Guggenheim Fellowship, he was known for both his technical skills and his high-spirited, droll depictions of human foibles. Dehn was born in 1895 in Waterville, Minnesota. He began creating artwork at the age of six, and by the time of his death had created nearly 650 images. Dehn went to the Minneapolis School of Art (known today as the Minneapolis College of Art and Design), where he met and became a close friend of Wanda Gag. In 1917 he and Gág were two of only a dozen students in the country to earn a scholarship to the Art Students League of New York. He was drafted to serve in World War I in 1918, but declared himself a conscientious objector and spent four months in a guardhouse detention camp in Spartanburg, SC and then worked for eight months as a painting teacher at an arm rehabilitation hospital in Asheville, NC. Later, Dehn returned to the Art Students League for another year of study and created his first lithograph, The Harvest. In 1921 Dehn's lithographs were featured in his first exhibition at Weyhe Gallery in New York City. From 1920 to 1921 in Manhattan, he was connected to New York's politically left-leaning activists. In 1921, he went to Europe. In Paris and Vienna he belonged to a group of expatriate intellectuals and artists, including Andrée Ruellan, Gertrude Stein, and ee cummings...
Category

1930s American Modern Portrait Paintings

Materials

Gouache

Young Spaniard with mantilla and fan
Located in Genève, GE
Work on wood
Category

1920s Portrait Paintings

Materials

Oil

Portrait Of Violin Player By Neville Stephen Lytton, Of Claude Tryon
Located in York, GB
A Portrait of Claude Tryon (d.1949),holding a violin .This is a painting of the artists son in law Oil on canvas in gilt frame . Early 20th century size of painting...
Category

1920s Realist Portrait Paintings

Materials

Oil

Cabaret Dancers girls Austrian watercolor painting in fraimed 1930s
Located in Stockholm, SE
Signed: by Richard Geiger (1870 – 1945), Austrian - Hungarian painter. Also pencils inscriptions on reverse with date 33 (1933). By the 1920s, he worked illustrating books, bookplates and posters. His paintings included portraits, nudes, genre paintings, and mythological scenes, but he was known for his illustrations, especially his carnival motifs. Spectacular masterwork. Size app.: 18 x 23.3 cm (roughly 7.1 x 9,2 in), framed 31.7 x 36.4 cm (roughly 12.5 x 14.3 in). Very Good condition, minimal age wear. In person actual painting may appear darker or brighter than in our pictures, strictly depending on sufficient light in your environment. Please study good resolution images for overall cosmetic condition. Glass will be removed prior to shipment for safe transit. Weight of app. 0,5 kg (without glass!) is going to measure some 2 kg volume weight packed for shipment. R. Geiger was born in Vienna. He first attended a drawing school and then studied at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna, where he studied under Christian Griepenkerl and August Eisenmenger. He studied sculpture with Fritz Klimsch at the Academy of Arts in Berlin. There he took part in the exhibitions of the Academy with his portrait busts and sculptures. In Paris he studied at the Julian Academy and worked in the studio of François Flameng...
Category

1930s Realist Portrait Paintings

Materials

Wood, Paper, Watercolor

Antique American Ashcan School Original Portrait Of A Young Woman Oil Painting
Located in Buffalo, NY
Antique American school portrait oil painting. Oil on board, circa 1930. Unsigned. Displayed in a giltwood frame. Image, 13"L x 17"H.
Category

1930s Impressionist Portrait Paintings

Materials

Oil, Canvas

Antique American Southern School Black Woman Walking Portrait Oil Painting
Located in Buffalo, NY
Antique American impressionist seascape signed oil painting. Oil on canvas. Signed. Framed. Image size, 14L x 11H.
Category

1920s Impressionist Portrait Paintings

Materials

Oil, Canvas

The Sophisticate
Located in West Hollywood, CA
We are proud to have recently discovered, “The Sophisticate”, by American artist Alexander Rosenfeld. Rosenfeld was classically trained in fine ...
Category

1930s Art Deco Portrait Paintings

Materials

Oil

The Cabaret Dancer
Located in London, GB
'The Cabaret Dancer', crayon on art paper, by Kolomon Moore (circa 1930s). The Crazy Years (les Années Folles) of Paris in the 1920s hit an abrupt end in...
Category

1930s Portrait Paintings

Materials

Paper, Crayon

Mother and Child (Framed Early 20th Century Figurative Portrait Painting)
Located in New Orleans, LA
A gentle, quiet, lovely portrait of motherhood painted by British artist Arthur Bradbury in 1927, a distinguished painter who over the years exhibited 14 works at the Royal Academy. ...
Category

1920s Portrait Paintings

Materials

Oil

Young Men in an Interior - English Post Impressionist Pointillist Oil Painting
Located in Sevenoaks, GB
A beautiful c.1930 English post-impressionist / pointillist oil on canvas depicting two young men at a table. The work is superbly executed with a wonderf...
Category

1930s Post-Impressionist Portrait Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Half-length portrait of an elderly bearded man - Melancholy of a prophet -
Located in Berlin, DE
Friedrich August Seitz (1902 Staffort - 1944 Belgrade). Half-length portrait of an elderly man with a beard. Oil on canvas, 42 x 34 cm (visible seize), 58 x 50 cm (frame), signed and...
Category

1920s Expressionist Portrait Paintings

Materials

Oil

"Sandy"
Located in Lambertville, NJ
Jim's of Lambertville Fine Art Gallery is proud to present this piece by Robert Henri (1865 - 1929). Robert Henri was born Robert Henry Cozad in Cincinnati, Ohio in 1865. At the ...
Category

1920s Other Art Style Portrait Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Otto Hake Signed American Modernist Woman Portrait Framed Original Oil Painting
Located in Buffalo, NY
Nice modernist portrait for sale here. Oil on board. Signed. Nicely framed. Image size, 9L x 10H.
Category

1920s Modern Portrait Paintings

Materials

Oil, Canvas

The cellist
Located in Genève, GE
Work on canvas
Category

1930s Portrait Paintings

Materials

Oil

Vintage Large Signed American Modernist Interior Scene Portrait Oil Painting
Located in Buffalo, NY
Antique American modernist signed portrait oil painting by Sidney Gross (1921 - 1969). Oil on canvas. Signed.
Category

1930s Modern Portrait Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Abraham Lincoln
Located in San Francisco, CA
Charles E. Willette: 1899-1979. Listed American artist who studied at the Arts Student League in the 1930s with Raphael Soyer and Robert Brackman. This powerfully painted portrait of...
Category

1930s American Realist Portrait Paintings

Materials

Oil

Golden Age of Illustration Beautiful Smiling Woman, Female Illustrator
By Zoë Mozert
Located in Miami, FL
Stunning portrait with a killer smile by Golden Age of Illustration female Illustrator Zoë Mozert. Signed lower right. Framed under glass, silk matted and i...
Category

1930s Portrait Paintings

Materials

Pastel, Illustration Board

Antique American Modernist Nude Artist Studio Surreal Portrait Oil Painting
Located in Buffalo, NY
Antique American school surreal composition painting. Oil on board, circa 1950. Unsigned. Image size, 8L x 12H. Housed in a period modern frame.
Category

1930s Modern Portrait Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Three Rosy Cheek Children - Children Book Illustration. Female Illustrator
Located in Miami, FL
Legendary female illustrator creates a graphic and tightly designed triple portrait of her signature subjects. Kids! Signed lower right. Unframed on heavy illustration board. Grace Drayton had a recognizable style which is a hallmark of all great artists. Instantly recognizable, a Grace Drayton subject is a stylized child with a cherubic style, often with round faces, plump bodies, rosy cheeks, and a happy disposition. Three Rosy Cheek Children is an excellent example of her best work. Grace Drayton Born: Grace Gebbie October 14, 1878 Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, US Died: January 31, 1936 (aged 58) Cartoonist, Illustrator Grace G. Wiederseim Notable works Campbell Soup Kids Dolly Dimples Dolly Dingle...
Category

1920s Pop Art Portrait Paintings

Materials

Gouache, Pencil

Portrait of young woman, 20s hairstyle
Located in Genève, GE
Work on canvas
Category

1920s Portrait Paintings

Materials

Oil

Woman with headscarf original oil on canvas painting
Located in Barcelona, Barcelona
Albert Rafols Cullerés (1892-1986) - Woman with scarf - Oil on canvas Oil measures 46x38 cm. Frameless. Catalan painter formed the Llotja with ...
Category

1930s Impressionist Portrait Paintings

Materials

Oil, Canvas

Relaxing
Located in Los Angeles, CA
RICHARD GEIGER "RELAXING" OIL ON CANVAS, SIGNED HUNGARIAN, C.1930 28 X 39 INCHES FRAMED 36.5 X 46 INCHES Richard Geiger 1870-1945 Richard Geiger was born in Vienna and first studied at the Vienna Art Institute with the academic painter Christian Ludwig Von Griepenkerl and, subsequently, in Paris with Francois Flameng...
Category

1930s Art Deco Portrait Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

The Bather
Located in London, GB
'The Bather', oil on board, by Charles Kvapil (1934). The world of art has for centuries depicted bathers in one form or another. Kvapil's wonderfully allur...
Category

1930s Expressionist Portrait Paintings

Materials

Oil, Board

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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