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Portrait Paintings For Sale
Period: 1940s
Period: 1920s
Beautiful Woman watercolor painting by Robert Philipp
Located in Surfside, FL
A sensitive portrait beautifully rendered in watercolor and gouache. Mid century. I am guessing from the 1940s it is not dated. Robert Philipp (February 2, 1895 – November 22, 1981) was an American painter influenced by Impressionism and Post-Impressionism, and known for his nudes, still lifes, and portraits of attractive women and Hollywood stars. Noted art critic Henry McBride called Philipp one of America's top six painters of his generation. He was an instructor of painting at the Art Students League of New York for 33 years. WPA Era. Philipp was Secretary of the National Academy of Design, and National Academician, Benjamin Franklin Fellow, Royal Society of Arts in London. He was married to model and fellow artist Rochelle ("Shelly") Post, who frequently posed for him until her death in 1971. His compositions and painting style have been compared to the art of Edgar Degas and Pierre-Auguste Renoir. Philip won prizes in most of the important exhibitions of his time, and his paintings are in numerous museums and important private collections. In 1940, Philipp was invited to Los Angeles by Hollywood mogul Louis B. Mayer to paint portraits of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer movie stars. The same year, Walter Wanger, producer of The Long Voyage Home, directed by John Ford and based on plays by Eugene O'Neill, contracted with Reeves Lewenthal, head of the Associated American Artists gallery in Manhattan, to bring nine well-known artists to the set and paint scenes from the movie and portraits of the actors in character. The artists included Robert Philipp, Thomas Hart Benton, Grant Wood, Ernest Fiene, George Schreiber, Luis Quintanilla...
Category

1940s Portrait Paintings

Materials

Watercolor, Gouache

Portrait of Bert Lahr - Circus Performer - Modernism
Located in Miami, FL
A recent Kuhn Circus Performer sold for $312,000 at Bonhams, NY Bert Lahr shined in the role of The Cowardly Lion in the Wizard of OZ. Here he is depict...
Category

1940s American Modern Portrait Paintings

Materials

Oil

Couple of Berbers - Oil paint, a couple, 41x33 cm. each
Located in Nice, FR
Couple of paintings depincting a Berber man and woman by the spanish artist ANGLADA PINTO Luis. The man is painted on panel and the woman on canvas. Both same size. Not framed. A bea...
Category

1920s Post-Impressionist Portrait Paintings

Materials

Oil

Alexandre JACOVLEFF (1887–1938), portrait of a young African man
Located in Paris, FR
Alexandre Jacovleff (1887–1938), born in Saint Petersburg and later naturalized as French, was a prominent Russian painter. The son of a naval officer, he studied at the Imperial Aca...
Category

1920s Portrait Paintings

Materials

Oil, Panel

Portrait of a Woman lost in Thought
Located in Miami, FL
Signed and dated 1924 upper right Simplified forms, geometricized volumes and restricted color palette characterizes this work. Zabriskie Gallery Label on verso Original period frame Kenneth Hayes Miller taught at the Art Students League from 1911 until 1951. Some of his students were: Reginald Marsh, George Bellows, George Tooker, Rockwell Kent, Yasuo Kuniyoshi and Patrick Henry Bruce
Category

1920s American Impressionist Portrait Paintings

Materials

Oil

Charles Léandre "Lovers" 1925
Located in Saint Ouen, FR
Charles Léandre "Lovers" 1925 Oil painting / canvas on frame 115 x 81 cm Very nice condition! Selling price : 3900 euros
Category

1920s Portrait Paintings

Materials

Oil

The Bouquet Figurative
Located in Soquel, CA
Portrait of a woman holding a bouquet of flowers by Helen Enoch Gleiforst (American, 1903-1997). Signed "Gleiforst" lower right. Unframed. From the Estate of Helen Gleiforst. Helen...
Category

1940s Abstract Impressionist Portrait Paintings

Materials

Oil, Linen

Lady at Dressing Table - Original Painting
Located in Saint-Ouen, FR
"Lady at dressing table" Oil on canvas signed and dated right below 1929 Old original frame gild with leaves Dim canvas : 72 x 56 cm Dim frame : 92 X 80 cm ENJOLRAS Delphin (1857-...
Category

1920s Academic Portrait Paintings

Materials

Oil

Mid Century Golden Age of Illustration- Narrative Art - Norman Rockwell School
Located in Miami, FL
“Graduation Day” is emblematic of mid-century American Illustration. But the real story of this storytelling work is that it embodies the lost art of portrait painting and graphic design. Alex Ross borrows on the classical tradition and flaunts his skills as a narrative painter. In “Graduation Day”, he paints a complex composition involving at least thirteen portraits. The subjects are beautifully rendered and lit. They are set against a dark grey background and jump off the surface at the viewer. The composition is complexly designed. The future graduate in the red jacket engaging with a girl photographer is a compositional device that leads the viewer's eye to the main subject - a father congratulating his son on graduating from medical school. Creating art that relies on facial expressions and body gestures is a talent absent in contemporary art. Why? It’s very hard to do and takes years and training and practice to get it right. Despite Alex Ross's folksy subject matter, this work is a high example of naturalism and representation by an important member of the Golden Age of American Illustration. Signed lower right Born in the town of Dunfermline, Scotland, Alexander Sharpe Ross (1908-1990) moved with his family to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in 1911. After attending Carnegie Tech (now Carnegie Mellon University), Ross moved to New York and joined the Charles E. Cooper Studio, where he worked among such notable illustrators as Ward Brackett, Stevan Dohanos, J. Frederick Smith...
Category

1940s Portrait Paintings

Materials

Gouache

Uncle Sam
Located in Missouri, MO
This is an original oil on velvet painting created c. 1942. Syd Cockell was an accomplished American illustrator during World War II.
Category

1940s American Realist Portrait Paintings

Materials

Oil

Blond Pin up with Perfect Smile Tennis Racket - Women Illustrators
Located in Miami, FL
Julia (Elsie Julia Miller) Schleicher (Canadian/American, 1916-1988) she was an important female illustrator Woman Tennis Player Pastel and gouache on boa...
Category

1940s Romantic Portrait Paintings

Materials

Pastel, Gouache

Female Portrait - Russian Ukrainian Cubism
Located in London, GB
This oil painting is signed by the artist "Kremegne" in the lower right part. It was painted circa 1920's. Provenance: Madame Line Playfair, Chiswick, London Exhibited: Redfern Ga...
Category

1920s Cubist Portrait Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Self Portrait
Located in London, GB
HUGO SCHEIBER 1873-1950 1873 - Budapest - 1950 (Hungarian) Title: Self Portrait Technique: Original Signed Pastel Drawing on Paper Size: 37.7 x 30 cm. / 14.8 x 11.8 in. Additiona...
Category

1940s Futurist Portrait Paintings

Materials

Pastel

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

"Jewel"
Located in Lambertville, NJ
Jim’s of Lambertville is proud to offer this artwork by: Gershon Benjamin (1899 - 1985) An American Modernist of portraits, landscapes, still lives, and the urban scene, Gershon ...
Category

1940s Modern Portrait Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Manuel Avila Camacho, Time magazine cover, - Journalist Portraiture
Located in Miami, FL
Journalist Portraiture. Gouache on board Signed Lower Right matted to 17.75 x 16.75 inches. Archivally Matted Not Framed 
 He illustrated more than 300 covers for Time magazine a...
Category

1940s Realist Portrait Paintings

Materials

Gouache

American Eagle Fortune Magazine Cover Illustration ( alternate )
Located in Miami, FL
Alternate cover for Fortune Magazine February, 1940. Gouache on board. 350x285 mm; 13 3/4x11 1/4. Signed "A. Petrucelli" in lower left image. Tipped t...
Category

1940s Art Deco Portrait Paintings

Materials

Gouache

The Letter, Female Portrait, 20th Century German Artist, Signed and dated 1928
Located in London, GB
Oil on canvas, signed & dated 19'28' Image size: 19 x 49 inches (48 x 124.5 cm) Original Gilt frame Johann Vincenz Cissarz Johann Vincenz Cissarz was born on January 22nd 1873, Dan...
Category

1920s Modern Portrait Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Mother and Child in Tender Moment - Female Illustrator Golden Age
Located in Miami, FL
Female Illustrator of the Golden Age, Ruth Mary Hallock, paints a sensitive, heartwarming portrait of Mother and Child in a post-impressionist style. Richly saturated hues and gestur...
Category

1920s Post-Impressionist Portrait Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Alexander Brook Oil on Canvas Painting Titled "The Artist's Model", Dated 1928
Located in New York, NY
A model standing in a studio putting on, or taking off, her clothing.
Category

1920s Portrait Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Frank Judge Oil on Board Painting Titled "Miss St. Louis", circa 1940
Located in New York, NY
A bright portrait of a woman in pageant dress before a St. Louis skyline and riverboat.
Category

1940s Portrait Paintings

Materials

Oil, Board

Woman Receiving Box of Chocolates at the Post Office, Liberty Magazine
By Richard Fayerweather Babcock
Located in Fort Washington, PA
Date: 1940 Medium: Oil on Canvas Dimensions: 29.00" x 23.00" Signature: Signed Lower Left Magazine cover: Liberty Magazine (Canada), February 24, 1940;
Category

1940s Portrait Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Art Journalism - War Lessons, Illustration for Collier's, Female Illustrator
Located in Miami, FL
Marta Sawyers. Illustrator Journalist. She was sent to war-ravaged countries to “Paint the Story”. What's unique here? This represents the work an Artist Journalist/War Correspondent...
Category

1940s Post-Impressionist Portrait Paintings

Materials

Pastel

Father, Daughter and Horse by Orovida Pissarro - Oil painting
Located in London, GB
*UK BUYERS WILL PAY AN ADDITIONAL 20% VAT ON TOP OF THE ABOVE PRICE Father, Daughter and Horse by Orovida Pissarro (1893-1968) Oil on canvas 60 x 73 cm (23 ⅝ x 28 ¾ inches) Signed a...
Category

1940s Modern Portrait Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Study of Little Girl
Located in Fort Washington, PA
Medium: Oil on Board Signature: Unsigned A study of a little girl. Joseph Christian Leyendecker (March 23, 1874 - July 25, 1951) was one of the pre-eminen...
Category

1920s Other Art Style Portrait Paintings

Materials

Board, Oil

The Swing - Romantic Scene in the Garden
By Antonio Cerveto
Located in Saint-Ouen, FR
CERVETO RIBA Antonio (1876-1938) "The swing" Oil on canvas signed low right Gault frame (Paris) Dim canvas : 60 X 80 cm Dim frame : 81 X 102 cm CERVETO RIB...
Category

1920s Academic Portrait Paintings

Materials

Oil

Cosmopolitan Magazine Cover, February 1942
Located in Fort Washington, PA
Signature: Cosmopoilitan Magazine Cover, February 1942
Category

1940s Portrait Paintings

Materials

Pastel

McCalls Magazine Cover
Located in Fort Washington, PA
June 1925 McCalls magazine 'To the Girls of St. Agnes Seminary' Neysa Moran McMein – later Mrs. John Baragwanath – wanted, as a girl in Quincy, Illinois, to be a musician. Although she changed her mind and attended the Art Institute of Chicago, she paid her way through school by writing music and playing piano in a ten-cent store. During World War I, she went to France under the auspices of the YMCA, and entertained the troops with her singing and piano accompaniment to showings of Winsor McCay’s animated film “Gertie the Dinosaur”. She painted her first McCall’s magazine cover in 1923, and for many years made pastel portraits of beautiful or notable young women for McCall’s monthly issues, as well as occasional covers for the Woman’s Home Companion, McClure’s, Photoplay, and The Saturday Evening Post. She also regularly contributed her drawings to the annual New York Times’ Hundred Neediest Cases. McMein was equally noted as a hostess and friend of such notables as Alexander Woollcott, Irving Berlin, Marc Connolly, Ben Lillie, Irene Castle...
Category

1920s Other Art Style Portrait Paintings

Materials

Pastel, Board

Young girl Redhead Holding her father's hand
Located in Miami, FL
There is a reason why there are few contemporary painters who can paint a portrait this good. It's hard to do. It's easy to throw some paint or spray a mess of graffiti on canvas. That's easy art. Executing a portrait with a great depth of anatomy and structure takes years of academic training. In Riggs's time, there were teachers who knew how to pass on this knowledge. He studied at the Art Students League and the Académie Julian . Today, they are very few and far between. Tempera mixed with gum arabic and alcohol on Renaissance Panel - Robert Riggs was a Gay Artist...
Category

1940s American Realist Portrait Paintings

Materials

Oil

Yosuke Matsoke, Time magazine cover illustration , July 7, 1941
Located in Miami, FL
Ernest Hamlin Baker is one of America's greatest artist that no one has ever heard of. Take a look at his full body of work. If you haven't noticed, Ernest Hamlin Baker is an excepti...
Category

1940s American Realist Portrait Paintings

Materials

Gouache

Tribesmen with Headdresses
Located in Miami, FL
Tempera mixed with gum arabic and alcohol on Renaissance Panel "Robert Riggs was awarded the Gold Medal for Excellence by the New York Art Directors Club for ten consecutive years and received many additional awards." He was elected to the Society of Illustrators' Hall of Fame. His work is in the permanent collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the Philadelphia Museum of Fine Arts and the U.S. Library of Congress. Riggs's compositons are "monumental" Walt Reed Riggs was a Gay Artist...
Category

1940s American Realist Portrait Paintings

Materials

Tempera

Mid-Century Americana "Good House Keeping Magazine", 1948
Located in Miami, FL
When the Wood Grows Dry "Good House Keeping Magazine" illustration Surreal depiction of a young mid-century girls social life Good House Keeping Magazi...
Category

1940s Academic Portrait Paintings

Materials

Gouache, Board

Asian Love Story - The Good Earth - Golden Age of Illustration
Located in Miami, FL
Magazine Story Illustration most likely for Cosmopolitan or Woman's Home Companion. Caption: "'I will not heed these old ones,' said the maid. 'Let us flee together somewhere and ...
Category

1920s Academic Portrait Paintings

Materials

Adhesive, Oil

Time magazine cover, April 6, 1946
Located in Miami, FL
This work is meticulously and brilliantly rendered to capture not only the likeness of the sitter but spirit as well. The image is pushed to the forefront of the composition and s...
Category

1940s American Realist Portrait Paintings

Materials

Mixed Media, Watercolor, Gouache, Pencil

Film Noir Curse of the Golden Cross Magazine - Golden Age of Illustration
Located in Miami, FL
Herbert Morton Stoops American (1888 - 1948) Curse of the Golden Cross Magazine illustration, 1925 Oil on canvas 40 x 30 in. Not signed Work is framed
Category

1920s Post-Impressionist Portrait Paintings

Materials

Oil

Study for Saturday Evening Post Cover, Peeling Apples
Located in Fort Washington, PA
Date: Nov 28, 1925 Medium: Oil on Canvas Dimensions: 14.00" x 11.20" Signature: Unsigned Study for Saturday Evening Post Cover, November 28, 1925
Category

1920s Portrait Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Cover of Etude Magazine
Located in Fort Washington, PA
Man sitting on a chair playing the accordion. Signed Lower Left on Reverse.
Category

1920s Other Art Style Portrait Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Tribesmen with Headdresses
Located in Miami, FL
"Robert Riggs was awarded the Gold Medal for Excellence by the New York Art Directors Club for ten consecutive years and received many additional awards." He was elected to the Society of Illustrators' Hall of Fame. His work is in the permanent collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the Philadelphia Museum of Fine Arts and the U.S. Library of Congress. Riggs's compositons are "monumental" Walt Reed - work is unframed. - Riggs was a Gay Artist.
Category

1940s American Realist Portrait Paintings

Materials

Tempera

Contrast of Lights - Portrait of Elica Balla - Oil on Panel by G. Balla - 1941
Located in Roma, IT
Oil painting on Board realized by Balla as portrait of his second daughter Elica. A beautiful, top quality portrait among the most beautiful of his figurative painting. It includes an original contemporary wooden frame designed and colored by Balla himself (he used to often produce himself the frames for his works). Signed on top left "BALLA" in capital letters. Giacomo Balla (Turin, 1871 - Rome, 1958) Giacomo Balla was born in Turin in 1871. Since he was a young boy, when he begins to attend the Albertina Academy, he dedicates his studies to the violin and painting. His first artistic accomplishment dates back to 1894, a self-portrait. In 1895 Balla moves to Rome with his mother and then in 1900 he moves to Paris for several months. His early years as a painter indicate an interest in the divisionist paintings of Pellizza da Volpedo...
Category

1940s Modern Portrait Paintings

Materials

Oil, Wood Panel

Serenade
Located in West Hollywood, CA
Premiering for the first time in three decades, the original paintings of American artist Maurice Green. Born in 1908 in Latvia, Maurice Green studied with prominent artists of the day before settling in Los Angeles in the 1930’s. The artist continued his art education and began exhibiting throughout galleries in Southern California. As with many artists, his earliest style was more academic realistic imagery, transitioning due to his intense fascination with the cubist avant garde movement, into cubist imagery which became the trademark style of painting for the remainder of his life. This is the first presentation of the paintings of Maurice Green since his death in 1993. “The Serenade”, is original mixed media watercolor on artist board, signed, e very early work c.1945, this is a painting which clearly defines his talent as a fine cubist artist.
Category

1940s Cubist Portrait Paintings

Materials

Oil

Auto Portrait
Located in West Hollywood, CA
Jirayr Zorthian(1911-2004), went through two Turkish massacres before age eight. He left Turkey at age nine with his family and spent a year in Padua, Italy, waiting for his visa to ...
Category

1940s Modern Portrait Paintings

Materials

Oil

Self Portrait - The Red Shirt
Located in West Hollywood, CA
American artist Ron Blumberg. Blumberg was classically trained at La Grande Academie Chaumiere in Paris, 1932, before moving to New York where he became a National Academy artist and a member of the Art Students League. Painted just after the artist returned from New York, c.1945, "The Red Shirt...
Category

1940s Portrait Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Dody in the Afternoon
Located in West Hollywood, CA
Noted German Expressionist artist Fritz Schwaderer, was classically schooled in fine art in Germany in the early-mid 1920’s. Schwaderera...
Category

1940s Expressionist 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

Oil, Panel

The Princess
Located in West Hollywood, CA
Presenting an original oil on canvas by American artist Alexander Rosenfeld. Rosenfeld was classically trained in Poland before settling in Los An...
Category

1940s Art Deco Portrait Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Margit
By Otto Tetjus Tugel
Located in West Hollywood, CA
Presenting a rare oil on panel by German artist Otto Tugel. Otto Tugel worked in Germany before settling in New York. This is an early oil on panel, signed in monogram, dated 1925.
Category

1920s Expressionist Portrait Paintings

Materials

Oil, Panel

Mademoiselle Jannel
Located in West Hollywood, CA
An original mixed media gouache by French artist Jean Jannel, known for his figurative, genre portraits. Mademoiselle Jannel, is an original mixed media gouache, c.1930. We acquir...
Category

1920s Art Deco Portrait Paintings

Portrait Paintings for Sale on 1stDibs

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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