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Modern Portrait Paintings

MODERN STYLE

The first decades of the 20th century were a period of artistic upheaval, with modern art movements including Cubism, Surrealism, Futurism and Dadaism questioning centuries of traditional views of what art should be. Using abstraction, experimental forms and interdisciplinary techniques, painters, sculptors, photographers, printmakers and performance artists all pushed the boundaries of creative expression.

Major exhibitions, like the 1913 Armory Show in New York City — also known as the “International Exhibition of Modern Art,” in which works like the radically angular Nude Descending a Staircase by Marcel Duchamp caused a sensation — challenged the perspective of viewers and critics and heralded the arrival of modern art in the United States. But the movement’s revolutionary spirit took shape in the 19th century.

The Industrial Revolution, which ushered in new technology and cultural conditions across the world, transformed art from something mostly commissioned by the wealthy or the church to work that responded to personal experiences. The Impressionist style emerged in 1860s France with artists like Claude Monet, Paul Cézanne and Edgar Degas quickly painting works that captured moments of light and urban life. Around the same time in England, the Pre-Raphaelites, like Edward Burne-Jones and Dante Gabriel Rossetti, borrowed from late medieval and early Renaissance art to imbue their art with symbolism and modern ideas of beauty.

Emerging from this disruption of the artistic status quo, modern art went further in rejecting conventions and embracing innovation. The bold legacy of leading modern artists Georges Braque, Pablo Picasso, Frida Kahlo, Salvador Dalí, Henri Matisse, Joan Miró, Marc Chagall, Piet Mondrian and many others continues to inform visual culture today.

Find a collection of modern paintings, sculptures, prints and other fine art on 1stDibs.

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Style: Modern
Color:  Brown
Femme aux Souliers Noir (Woman in Black Shoes)
Located in New Orleans, LA
This intimate portrait was composed by the Bulgarian-born French Expressionist painter Jules Pascin. Known as the "Prince of Montparnasse," Pascin made a name for himself throughout ...
Category

Early 20th Century Modern Portrait Paintings

Materials

Oil, Canvas

English mid century oil painting Portrait of a Wire Haired Jack Russell terrier
Located in Woodbury, CT
English mid century oil painting Portrait of a Wire Haired Jack Russell terrier. Kate Gray was a British animal portrait painter during the last half of the ...
Category

1960s Modern Portrait Paintings

Materials

Oil, Board

Oval Portrait of Mother and Daughter early 20 century Scandinavian Oil Painting
Located in Stockholm, SE
Sketch (or Non-Finito work) done by an unknown Scandinavian professional artist in a semi-modernist manner. A tender scene of family harmony, a daughter sits in her mother’s arms, co...
Category

Early 20th Century Modern Portrait Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Wood, Cotton Canvas, Oil

Self Portrait in a Mirror with Artist's Tools, Oil on canvas, Signed, Polish
Located in London, GB
Oil on canvas, signed bottom left Image size: 24 x 20 inches (61 x 51 cm) Contemporary style hand made frame Joseph Biel Joseph Biel was a painter and photographer who was born in ...
Category

20th Century Modern Portrait Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Diana
Located in Bayonne, NJ
A beautiful painting by Volodymyr Makarenko that represents his authentic artistic style. The painting is in excellent condition. Oil on canvas, un...
Category

Early 2000s Modern Portrait Paintings

Materials

Oil

"Don't Cry Long" Abstracted and Distorted Self-Portrait, One Crying Eye
Located in Detroit, MI
"Don't Cry Long" is a self-portrait of the artist and an unusual one at that in which the artist portrays herself shedding tears. Perhaps it is an expression of some grief experienced by Ms. Woodlock, but it also admonishes her to not "Cry Long" while at the same time poking fun because of her elongated face and the one lone "long" tear tracing a pattern down her face. In addition to self-portraits, Ethelyn painted commissioned portraits. In this painting her head is cocked and her famous bangs hang down her forehead. Compare two self-portraits, “Up From Under”, and “M’Eyes" to "Don't Cry Long." The major differences are the close facial view and the brilliant blood red paint that fills the entire canvas. This painting is included in the book, "Dreams Have Wings: An Artist's Journey into Magic and Mystery" printed in the United States, 1985. She describes "Don't Cry Long" as showing how funny looking we are, if we cry too long. Ethelyn Woodlock...
Category

Mid-20th Century Modern Portrait Paintings

Materials

Oil, Masonite

Early Modern American Portrait, Pennsylvania/Massachusetts, Frank Anderson Trapp
Located in Baltimore, MD
This is a very stylized and powerful portrait by the noted artist Frank Anderson Trapp. It is dated 1940, and is very much in the modern style of French painters Ferdinand Leger and...
Category

1940s Modern Portrait Paintings

Materials

Oil

20th Century German Modernist Oil Painting Portrait of African Woman
Located in Cirencester, Gloucestershire
Artist: Elisabeth Hahn (German 1924-2021), Elisabeth Hahn was born in Dortmund, Germany, where she began her artistic studies. In 1953, she moved to Paris. She continued her studie...
Category

20th Century Modern Portrait Paintings

Materials

Oil

20th CENTURY FRENCH MODERNIST PAINTING - HALF LENGTH PORTRAIT MALE NUDE
Located in Cirencester, Gloucestershire
"Male Portrait" by Jean Marc (French 1949-2019) gouache paint painting: 16 x 12.5 inches provenance: private collection, South of France Superb original painting by the widely exhi...
Category

20th Century Modern Portrait Paintings

Materials

Gouache

1950's French Post Impressionist Signed Oil Portrait of Young Lady with Flowers
Located in Cirencester, Gloucestershire
Portrait of a Young Lady by Anna de Banguy (French mid 20th century) signed oil on board, framed framed: 29 x 23 inches painting: 23 x 17 inches provenance: private collection, Franc...
Category

Mid-20th Century Modern Portrait Paintings

Materials

Oil

Portrait of a Girl, Oil Portrait Painting by Jan de Ruth
Located in Long Island City, NY
Artist: Jan De Ruth, Czech (1922 - 1991) Title: Portrait of a Girl Year: circa 1964 Medium: Oil on Canvas, signed l.l. Size: 14 in. x 10 in. (35.56 cm x 25.4 cm) Frame Size: 21 x 17...
Category

1960s Modern Portrait Paintings

Materials

Oil

20th Century German Modernist Oil Painting Figure Sat On Door Steps
Located in Cirencester, Gloucestershire
Artist: Elisabeth Hahn (German 1924-2021), Elisabeth Hahn was born in Dortmund, Germany, where she began her artistic studies. In 1953, she moved to Paris. She continued her studie...
Category

20th Century Modern Portrait Paintings

Materials

Oil

Portrait of a Young Woman
Located in London, GB
'Portrait of a Young Woman', oil on board, by Anna Costa (circa 1960s). This is a beautiful, expressive portrait of a young woman painted by the artist using her trademark vibrant c...
Category

1960s Modern Portrait Paintings

Materials

Oil, Board

20th Century French Portrait of Auburn Hair Young Lady Large Oil Painting
Located in Cirencester, Gloucestershire
The Auburn Haired lady by Jacob Markiel (Polish 1911-2008) *See notes signed below oil on board, unframed board: 20 x 12 inches provenance: the artists e...
Category

Mid-20th Century Modern Portrait Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Country House Portrait Faringdon House Oxfordshire Grade 1 Listed Oil Painting
Located in Cirencester, Gloucestershire
Faringdon House, Oxfordshire English School, mid 20th century inscribed to label verso oil on board, framed framed: 19 x 23 inches provenance: private collection, England condition:...
Category

Mid-20th Century Modern Portrait Paintings

Materials

Oil

Lida
Located in Paris, FR
Jean-Gabriel DOMERGUE "Lida" Oil on panel Signed lower left and titled 'Lida' on the reverse Dimensions: 24 x 19 cm / 9 1/2 x 7 1/2 in. (painting) 45 x 40 cm / 17 3/4 x 16 3/4 in; (...
Category

Mid-20th Century Modern Portrait Paintings

Materials

Oil

Sounds in colors. 2023., canvas, oil, 90x70 cm
Located in Riga, LV
Sounds in colors. 2023., canvas, oil, 90x70 cm
Category

2010s Modern Portrait Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Antique American School Surreal Female Portrait Symbolic Rural Oil Painting
Located in Buffalo, NY
Antique American modernist surreal oil painting. Oil on canvas. Framed. No signature found.
Category

1930s Modern Portrait Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Holocaust Memorial Oil Painting Judaica Rabbi Composed of Figures Artists Frame
By Maurice Newman
Located in Surfside, FL
Maurice Newman was active/lived in Massachusetts / Lithuania. Maurice Newman is known for sculpture-abstraction, impressionist landscape painting, diorama. Born in Lithuania, Mauric...
Category

1960s Modern Portrait Paintings

Materials

Oil

Portrait of Young Girl - Oil on Canvas by Pietro Alimonti - 1969
Located in Roma, IT
Portrait of Young Girl is an artwork realized by Pietro Alimonti, 1969. Oil on Canvas. 49 x 39 cm ; 88 x 68 cm. Handsigned in the lower left margin. Good conditions!
Category

1960s Modern Portrait Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Little Sister, Big Sister, c.1970
Located in Franklin, MI
A wonderful painting in the style clearly identified with the artist.
Category

1970s Modern Portrait Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

The Preacher Rabbi "Der Maggid" Judaica Oil Painting WPA Jewish artist
Located in Surfside, FL
Genre: Modern Subject: Hasidic Rabbi preaching in Synagogue Medium: Oil Surface: Board, size includes artist decorated frame Country: United States The imagery of Maurice Kish (189...
Category

Mid-20th Century Modern Portrait Paintings

Materials

Oil, Board

Rabbi In Prayer, Early 20th Century Oil Painting
By S. Sieberger
Located in Surfside, FL
Samuel Seiberger, (Seeberger) was a known artist and post-card designer who lived in Paris and was active circa 1900-1940. He was arrested for being a Jew when the Germans occupied Paris in the 1940s. He was brought into a concentration camp...
Category

Early 20th Century Modern Portrait Paintings

Materials

Oil

Brin de filles
Located in LE HAVRE, FR
Virginie MATZ Brin de filles, 2022 Acrylic and collage on canvas Size: 50 x 73 cm Signed lower right. Titled and signed on the back Frameless Sold with invoice and certificate of ...
Category

2010s Modern Portrait Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Glue, Acrylic

Female Cornish artist, Walter Sickert pupil, Cubist portrait of man in interior
Located in Harkstead, GB
A really stylish portrait of a young man relaxing in an interior, painted in a unique, almost cubist style and wonderful texture to the brushwork. Garlick Barnes ( 1891-1987) A man reading in an interior Signed Oil on canvas 24 x 20 inches without frame 29 x 24½ inches with frame Barnes raised four children before turning her full attention to art. She studied at the Sidney Cooper School of Art, Canterbury, and at Heatherley's. In 1936 Garlick became a pupil of Walter Richard SICKERT...
Category

20th Century Modern Portrait Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Mid 20th Century French Modernist Signed Oil Figures Apple Harvest Banquet
Located in Cirencester, Gloucestershire
The Apple Harvest (with further image verso) French School, mid 20th century signed front and back oil on board, unframed board: 26 x 21.5 inches provenance: private collection, Fra...
Category

Mid-20th Century Modern Portrait Paintings

Materials

Oil

Female Portrait - Oil on Canvas by E. Bertolé - 1922
Located in Roma, IT
Female Portrait is an original modern artwork realized in 1922 by Emilia Bertolé. Original oil painting on canvas. Hand-signed and dated by the artist...
Category

1920s Modern Portrait Paintings

Materials

Oil, Canvas

Israeli Rabbis Dancing in Jerusalem, Judaica, Mixed Media Painting
Located in Surfside, FL
Moshe Katz (Romanian Israeli), 1937- an Israeli citizen, studied art at the Bezalel Academy of Art in Jerusalem, as well as at the Chicago Academy of Fine Arts. Although not an expo...
Category

20th Century Modern Portrait Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Mixed Media, Acrylic

Modernist Israeli Rabbis Dancing in Jerusalem, Judaica, Mixed Media Painting
Located in Surfside, FL
Moshe Katz (Romanian Israeli), 1937- an Israeli citizen, studied art at the Bezalel Academy of Art in Jerusalem, as well as at the Chicago Academy of Fine Arts. Although not an expo...
Category

20th Century Modern Portrait Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Mixed Media, Acrylic

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 Modern Portrait Paintings

Materials

Mixed Media, Plaster

Les Pierrots by André Braunecker - Oil on paper 50x65 cm
Located in Geneva, CH
Oil paint on paper with glass and frame. Signed and certified by the artist.
Category

1960s Modern Portrait Paintings

Materials

Oil

Portrait of a Woman with Red Hair on a Green Background in Acrylic
Located in Soquel, CA
Portrait of a Woman with Brown Hair on a Red Background in Acrylic on Artist's Board Portrait of a woman in the style of Amedeo Modigliani by an unknown artist (20th century). The w...
Category

Late 20th Century Modern Portrait Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Acrylic, Illustration Board

Nude with Lace, Pastel Study Painting by Pio Santini
Located in Atlanta, GA
This charming pastel painting on paper was designed by Pio Santini (1908-1986) and named: nude with lace. The artist's signature, Santini, can be found in the bottom left corner of the artwork. Lovely romantic composition with a nude young lady kneeling and holding a piece of white lace. Flamboyant magenta red drape background. The painting remains in its original frame, which features delicately carved wood, a gesso finish, an off-white wood liner, and glass protection. The piece is in good condition but has a dark stain and some small chips on the edges of the original wood frame. Measurements: With frame: 22.75 in. wide (58 cm) x 26 in. high (66 cm) Opening view: 14.50 in. wide (36.5 cm) x 17.75 in. (45 cm). Artist Biography: Pio Santini (1908-1986) Pio Santini was born on April 17, 1908, close to Rome, in Tivoli, Italy. He showed a precocious and pronounced artistic taste and gifts, to begin with, drawing and painting. From his childhood drawings, as early as 5 or 6 years old, he was gifted and had a technique above the average. As early as 1933, Pio Santini moved to Paris, in the Montparnasse district, also known as The Artists Area, where he settled in his first Parisian studio. He is recognized as a member of the Academy of Paris, a significant art movement in the first half of the 20th century, alongside Amedeo Modigliani and other Italian artists. While attending the classes of the Estienne School for further training in plastic art, Pio Santini started to attract attention in various Parisian Salons (particularly the Winter Salon, the Independents Salon, and the French Artists Salon) and to find a place in the Parisian universe of painting, as is shown in the press of the time. The Second World War, which pitted his country of birth against his adopted nation, created conflicting emotions in him. During this time, the concept of a united and reconciled Europe took root in his mind. In a way, he played a part in the resuming cultural exchanges between France and Italy by founding the association The Romans in Paris after the war, and especially by creating and animating the Villa D’Este Prize for about ten years, rewarding each year a French artist or writer by offering, a one month stay at the Villa, in Tivoli. Later, the Montparnasse Prize would reward Italian artists in Paris, in the same way. While devoting himself to painting, he worked as an art illustrator for edition and press and left us a rich but unrecognized work from this period. In the early 1960s, Pio Santini decided, imperiously and bravely, to live on his painting. A member of the Society of Independent Artists since 1934, he then actively participated in numerous collective exhibitions in France and abroad. He regularly exhibited in Parisian Salons, most of which he was a member: the Independents Salon, the Autumn Salon, the Winter Salon, the National Salon of the Fine Arts, and the Comparison Salon. A regular participant in the prestigious Salon des Artistes Français, he was often rewarded: Great Price of the Salon in 1970, then in 1974, a gold medal in 1971, and Prize-winner of the Ernest Marché Prize in 1974. Pio Santini lived his last years in his house in Garches, near Paris. He worked there until the last moment and died of illness at the age of 78. Keeping himself a part of the avant-garde of contemporary art, Pio Santini developed a personal work of formal coherence very steadily. He is a two-time artist, one of the beginnings of his career, the Thirties, and the other one, his rebirth, the Sixties, when the artist can again devote himself to painting. Between these two periods, the Second World War badly hit the pictorial growth of Pio Santini. However, everything had started under the best auspices for the young painter whose desire to devote himself to painting is evident in his self-portrait of 1928 as a manifesto. In the 1930s, following the revolutions of cubism, abstraction, and surrealism, figurative and sensual...
Category

1940s Modern Portrait Paintings

Materials

Paper, Pastel, Board

vagabonds oil on board painting modernism art
Located in Barcelona, Barcelona
Oil measures 70x50 cm. Frame measures 83x63 cm. Painter of landscapes and figures, in whose characterization he deepens psychologically capturing the character, Albert Roca has won...
Category

1990s Modern Portrait Paintings

Materials

Oil, Board

accordionist with pipe oil on board painting modernism art
Located in Barcelona, Barcelona
Albert Roca (1945) - accordionist with pipe oil on board painting Medidas óleo 47x34 cm. Medidas marco 62x48 cm. Painter of landscapes and figures, in who...
Category

1990s Modern Portrait Paintings

Materials

Board, Oil

Vieillesse, French Portrait of an Elderly Jewish Man
Located in Surfside, FL
1949 French Portrait of an Elderly Jewish Man, Signed Stern
Category

1940s Modern Portrait Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Rabbi in Study
By Avraham Goldberg
Located in Surfside, FL
Avraham Goldberg, Painter. b. 1906, Poland. Immigrated to Eretz Israel 1919. Died in Tel Aviv, 1980. Studies: Art Academy, New York. Lived in Paris and Tel Aviv. Goldberg had thre...
Category

20th Century Modern Portrait Paintings

Materials

Oil, Board

Mid-Century Modern Man - Portrait in Oil on Canvas
Located in Soquel, CA
Subtle and moody portrait of a Pensive man by Joan Tidwell (American, 1930-2002). The sitter in the portrait is a middle-aged man looking slightly downwards, wearing a collared shirt. This piece is completed in a tan and green palette, creating a somber feeling. Of particular note are the confident, thick brushstrokes - each one is well-placed in the modernist style. Similar in some ways to Picasso's portraits. Signed "Joan Tidwell" on verso Unframed. Canvas size: 30"H x 22"W oan Gay Tidwell (American, 1930-2002) was born and raised in Hollywood, CA, where she had some success as a child actor. Later, she graduated Magna Cum Laude from the University of Washington with a Master's Degree in English Literature and Drama. Tidwell moved to the Bay...
Category

1960s Modern Portrait Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

"Where Are You ?", with Bridge Pyramid Shape & the Mona Lisa Figurative Painting
Located in Clermont-Ferrand, Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes
"Where are you?", at a place where there are an arched bridge, a pyramid-shaped glass building and a portrait of the Mona Lisa. The lady in the painting asks or is asked in the phone...
Category

2010s Modern Portrait Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Acrylic

“Seduction", Lady Intoxicated by the Music Played by the Man Figurative Painting
Located in Clermont-Ferrand, Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes
This is an original painting on canvas by French artist Françoise Collandre. A graduate from the Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Métiers d'Arts in Paris, Françoise Collandre entered...
Category

2010s Modern Portrait Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Acrylic

"Morning Coffee", Portrait of People Street Background Figurative Painting
Located in Clermont-Ferrand, Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes
Original painting on canvas by French artist Françoise Collandre. A graduate from the Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Métiers d'Arts in Paris, Françoise Collandre entered the fine a...
Category

2010s Modern Portrait Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Acrylic

Woman with Hat - Oil Paint by Edmondo Maneglia - 1950
Located in Roma, IT
Woman with hat is an oil painting realized by Edmondo Maneglia (1925 - 2003). Woman sitting at the table with glass. Oil painting on canvas. Handsigned in the lower left and on th...
Category

1950s Modern Portrait Paintings

Materials

Oil, Canvas

Portrait of Artist's Wife with Fruit, 1945 American Modern Oil Painting
Located in Denver, CO
Untitled (Portrait of Bessy Lyon, Artist Wife) is an oil on canvas painting by Hayes Lyon (1901-1987) from 1945. Presented in a wood frame, outer dimensions measure 35 ¼ x 29 ¼ x 1 ¾ inches. Image size is 30 x 24 inches. About the Artist: A native of Athol, Kansas, Lyon is primarily associated with Colorado. After several summer vacations at the Boulder Chautauqua and at Manitou near Colorado Springs, his family relocated in 1920 to Boulder where his father had a lumber business. Nine years later they settled in Denver where his father owned the Acme Lumber Company. To comply with his desire for his son’s financial self-reliance, Lyon graduated from the University of Colorado at Boulder in 1931 with a B.A. degree in economics. But shortly thereafter he returned to his first love – art – that ultimately became his career. His interest in the arts was nurtured by his mother, herself a talented amateur artist, and by two of his aunts who served as role models. Beginning in 1932, he pursued a five-year course of study at the Chappell School of Art in Denver which by then had become part of the University of Denver. During his time at the school he studied with John E. Thompson and Santa Fe artist, Józef Bakoś. He also met two other Santa Fe-based artists, Willard Nash and B.J.O. Nordfeldt, when they exhibited at Chappell House, then the home of the Denver Art Museum. Lyon likewise attended the Cooke-Daniels Lecture Series there on the arts in the 1930s. Following graduation with a B.F.A. degree from the University of Denver in 1937, he studied privately for about a year with Andrew Dasburg in Taos, New Mexico, that redirected his attention to the rugged Rocky Mountain landscape, which he saw with directness and painted with an economy of means. His canvas, Winter Vista, done following his study with Dasburg, received the Edward J. Yetter Memorial Prize at the 45th Annual Exhibition of the Denver Art Museum in 1939. The painting was reproduced in the September 1939 issue of the Magazine of Art (Washington, DC). That same year his painting, Mount Evans, was included as one of Colorado’s entries in the American Art Today Pavilion at the 1939 World’s Fair in New York. The money he received from the Yetter Prize financed his trip to Mexico City and Guadalajara in 1939 to see firsthand the frescoes of José Clemente Orozco and Diego Rivera and the easel paintings of David Alfaro Siqueiros. Their work was admired by many Americans who participated in the WPA-era mural projects in the United States in the 1930s and early 1940s. The economic fallout from the Great Depression affecting many American artists at the time likewise resulted in Lyon’s participation in the Colorado Art Project, part of the WPA’s national program. Under its auspices he produced three murals in 1940 about the pioneer era of Fort Lupton, Colorado, which were installed in the auditorium of the local high school. Covering 367 square feet of wall space, one of the murals – Behold the West (the largest one) – incorporates the old fort for which the town is named. Before Lyon painted the murals, the students at Fort Lupton High School researched the history of their community and contributed to their cost, facilitating the murals’ allocation to their school under the Colorado Art Project. In the early 1940s Lyon shifted his focus to two new subjects – bathers, and canyons with conifers – reflecting his ongoing search for personal artistic growth. However, his reliance on structure to create form in his paintings and works on paper alienated some of his longtime followers. Nonetheless, his painting Conifers and Canyons won recognition at the 47th Annual Exhibition at the Denver Art Museum. The watercolor version of the piece was among three hundred works in that medium selected by John Marin, Charles Burchfield and Eliot O’Hara from a national competition held by the Section of Fine Arts (Federal Works Agency) and shown at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC, in 1941. Later that year Lyon spent time in California where he saw Orozco’s Prometheus, influencing him to increase his range of originality and expression. In 1942 Lyon enlisted in the U.S. Army, spending almost three years in the Mediterranean Theater – Africa and Italy – preparing camouflage operations and scale models of proposed landing sites. He used his free time in Italy to expand his artistic vocabulary by seeing cultural masterpieces in Rome, Florence, Siena and Milan, and through his extensive contact with Giorgio de Chirico, founder of the scuola metafisica art movement, and Gino Severini, a leading member of the Futurist movement. Because of Lyon’s low army rank and pay, de Chirico did a small watercolor for him signing it, "For Mr. Lyon; G de Chirico, 1944." Lyon often visited de Chirico and his wife, Isa, at their apartment near the Spanish Steps in Rome. Following his Army discharge in 1945 fellow Kansas native, Ward Lockwood, invited him to join the Art Department at the University of Texas at Austin where he taught painting from 1946 to 1951. During this period some of Lyon’s work employed the palette of the School of Paris which he had seen while stationed in Europe, while other paintings had a certain flatness found in some of Lockwood’s work from the 1930s. From 1951 to 1953 he was affiliated with the Lower Colorado River Authority in Austin as an illustrator and editor of the employee magazine. In 1953, following time spent in Mexico, he returned to Denver, working as an illustrator at Lowry Air Force Base until retirement in 1961. During that time he did little of his own art because he also was designing and building a home in Arvada, Colorado, and re-establishing himself in the Denver art community after a decade-long absence. His painting, Autumn Aspens (1953-present location unknown) illustrates his experimentation with abstraction. In the early 1960s he began painting from memory that continued until the steadily degenerative effects of Alzheimer’s disease took their toll a decade later. He depicted scenes from his wartime European sojourn and from his early adulthood. The latter include Souvenir of Boulder (1962), a nostalgic return to his boyhood home in Boulder; and Holly Mayer and Friends, a painting of Glenn Miller and his musicians, inspired by Lyon’s first encounter with jazz in Boulder in the 1920s. His lifelong passion for vintage cars and automobile racing...
Category

1940s Modern Portrait Paintings

Materials

Oil, Canvas

Clown, Early 20th Century Playful Oil Painting on Board
Located in Surfside, FL
This portrait of a clown by Maurice Kish is part from a series of carnival figures, circus clowns and carousel horses and riders that he did in the 30s and 40s. The artist uses a vibrant color palette and controlled brushstrokes to depict the subject in a realistic way. The imagery of Maurice Kish (1895-1987), whether factories or carousels, reliably subverts expectations. His vision hovers just around the unraveling edge of things, where what is solid and clear becomes ambiguous. He is fascinated, often delighted, by the falling apart. This unexpected, fresh perspective results in oddly affecting pictures of a now long-gone New York. Born Moishe in a town called Dvinsk, Russia (what is now Daugavpils, Latvia), Kish came with his family to New York when he was in his teens. The family settled in Brownsville, and for the rest of Kish’s life Brooklyn remained his home, though he moved from one neighborhood to another. He was close to his parents, who recognized his talent and supported his desire to become an artist. Kish attended the National Academy of Design as well as Cooper Union. His fellow students included many other immigrants and children of immigrants who were particularly receptive to the Modernism coming from Europe. As his career progressed, Kish himself applied different strains of Modernism to different purposes. For him, the story was held above all else. For years, Kish used the skills he acquired in art school to earn his living at a Manhattan glass...
Category

Early 20th Century Modern Portrait Paintings

Materials

Oil, Board

1950's Modernist Painting - Portrait Of Figure On Gold
Located in Cirencester, Gloucestershire
Gold Man by Bernard Labbe (French mid 20th century), stamped verso original watercolour/gouache painting on paper overall size: 111.75 x 8.5 inches condition: very good and ready to...
Category

Mid-20th Century Modern Portrait Paintings

Materials

Gouache, Watercolor

Telengana Man with the Scriptures, Acrylic, Canvas by Thota Vaikuntam-In Stock
Located in Kolkata, West Bengal
Thota Vaikuntam - Telengana Man with the Scriptures Acrylic on Canvas, 19.5 x 15.5 inches Thota Vaikuntam is one of the Greatest Artist from the Indian Sub-contitent. He is preoccupied with portraying the men and woman from his region. Thota Vaikuntam (born 1942) is an Indian Modern painter.His paintings capture simple lifestyle of villagers like the paddy fields, toddy pots on shoulders of men, the household chores, temple rituals etc. His drawings range from stark charcoal on paper, transparent washes and pencil drawings. Vaikuntam paints colorful and elaborately dressed Telangana region men and seductive women. His muse is the sensuous and voluptuous women of Telangana with their omnipresent vermilion bindis, draped in colourful sarees that highlight their dusky skin. The stylisation of a painting are a perfect foil to Indian classical dance as the figures seem to dance, as if following their creator in a statuesque movement, reminiscent of temple friezes. He uses the brightest of reds and yellows. The simple women become larger than life as they fill the small format of his paintings draped in bright Sircilla saris. "I like using rich primary colours, which give a sense of character and depth to my paintings. Like reds and saffron and even orange, because these are essentially Indian colours. I don't like using colours that are mix of two, because they are not natural, they don't exist in surroundings around us, in our everyday life. - T. Vaikuntam” Style : Men and women of his village are often the central characters of his work. The obsession can be traced back to his childhood, when he used to be fascinated by the male artists who used to impersonate female characters in the travelling theatre groups that performed in his village. He admits finding the women of his village very sensuous and that he only attempts to capture their vibrancy. Vaikuntam’s art has a sense of strength to it, a power that emanates from the paint or charcoal that he applies to the surface, from his controlled lines, and from the fine strokes that he executes. He generally uses only primary colours, as he believes that composite colours do not exist in nature and are therefore, unnatural. About the Artist : Born : 1942 in Boorugupali, Andhra Pradesh. Education : 1970 - T. Vaikuntam completed a Diploma in Painting at the College of Fine Arts and Architecture, Hyderabad. 1972 - Painting and Printmaking from the Faculty of Fine Arts at Maharaja Sayajirao University, Baroda. Solo Exhibition : 1973 - He held his first solo exhibition at the Kala Bhavan in Hyderabad and since then has had regular shows...
Category

2010s Modern Portrait Paintings

Materials

Acrylic, Canvas

"Maternity" by Jose Royo 20th century oil on Board Signed
Located in LA BOUILLE, FR
"The Maternity" by Jose Royo oil on board. Oil on board Jose Royo's "The Maternity." Even in its small frame, this powerful painting packs a big punch becau...
Category

Late 20th Century Modern Portrait Paintings

Materials

Oil, Board

Woman portrait by Armand Cacheux - Oil on canvas 92x73 cm
Located in Geneva, CH
Work on canvas without frame Painter born in Geneva in 1868. Died in 1965.
Category

Early 1900s Modern Portrait Paintings

Materials

Oil

'Blue Eyed Girl', PAFA, Philadelphia Museum, Pennsylvania Artist, Trompe L'Oeil
By Robert Childers
Located in Santa Cruz, CA
Signed center right, in the 53 stub, 'Childers' for Robert Childers (American, 1924-1984) and dated 1954. Robert Childers first served in the U.S. Navy for six years after graduating from Medford High School in 1941. Following World War II, he studied at the Philadelphia Museum School of Art where he was the recipient of a gold medal and, upon graduating from the Museum's school, was the recipient of a Cresson scholarship and attended the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, where he received his Masters degree. Childers continued his education with classes at Fleisher Memorial and performed for two years with the Philadelphia Dance Theater. Following his studies, he worked in fabrics, film production, toys and illustrations for publishers with du Pont in New York City. At the same time he maintained a studio and old twine factory over the Cherry Lane Theater. He lived in Greenwich Village for 19 years before accepting a position developing new products for American Greetings Inc. While there he designed the Hobbie Holly cloth doll...
Category

1950s Modern Portrait Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

"Chess", Set of 4 Portraits King-Queen-Bishop-Knight Figurative Acrylic Painting
Located in Clermont-Ferrand, Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes
A set of portraits of four chess characters - "the king, the queen, the bishop and the knight". Each of these four acrylic figurative cubist paintings measures 60 cm x 60 cm. A graduate from the Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Métiers d'Arts in Paris, Françoise Collandre...
Category

2010s Modern Portrait Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Acrylic

Portrait, Two Women, Oil on Canvas
Located in Surfside, FL
From the late 1920s to the eve of World War II, Anton Vorauer was an art professor at the Vienna Fine Art Academy. While painting at the Parthenon during the Nazi invasion of Greece,...
Category

20th Century Modern Portrait Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

In Prayer, Early 20th Century, Rabbi Portrait Judaica Oil Painting
Located in Surfside, FL
Samuel Seeberger (Sieberger) was a known artist and post-card designer who lived in Paris and was active around 1900-1940. He was arrested for being a Jew when the Germans occupied Paris in the 1940s. He was brought into a concentration camp...
Category

Early 20th Century Modern Portrait Paintings

Materials

Linen, Oil

Sitting girl with open book
Located in Wien, 9
As a pupil of William Straube, Dora Hitz, Max Pechstein and Willy Jaeckel, Edith Meyer von Kamptz achieved her own individual aesthetic designs with colourfu...
Category

1930s Modern Portrait Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Portrait - Tempera on Board by Virgilio Guidi - Mid-20th Century
Located in Roma, IT
Portrait is an original artwork realized by Virgilio Guidi in the half of 20th century. Tempera on board Good conditions. Includes frame. Hand-signed on the lower right. Virgili...
Category

Mid-20th Century Modern Portrait Paintings

Materials

Tempera, Board

Portrait of Giuseppe Garibaldi - Oil Painting - Late 19th Century
Located in Roma, IT
Portrait of Garibaldi is an original modern artwork realized by an unknown Artist in the late 19th Century.
Category

Late 19th Century Modern Portrait Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Rabbi, Judaica, Mixed Media
Located in Surfside, FL
Moshe Katz (Romanian Israeli), 1937- an Israeli citizen, studied art at the Bezalel Academy of Art in Jerusalem, as well as at the Chicago Academy of Fine Arts. He received second pr...
Category

20th Century Modern Portrait Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Mixed Media, Acrylic

Female figure - Oil Paint by Antonio Feltrinelli - 1930s
Located in Roma, IT
Female figure is a modern artwork realized by Antonio Feltrinelli in 1930s. Includes frame: 93.5 x 73.5 cm Mixed colored oil painting on canvas Antonio Feltrinelli (Milan, 1887 – Gargnano, 1942) He was born in Milan on June 1, 1887 to Giovanni Feltrinelli, the nephew of Giacomo, who was the founder of the Feltrinelli partnership. Feltrinelli was not only a prominent figure in the Italian economic and financial field, but he was also a painter, who was characterized as a strong, impetuous hot colorist, and preferred still lifes, portraits and landscapes. He started his career in 1930 at La Permanente (Milan), where he exhibited a portrait and a still life that won him the Fornara award. That same year, Feltrinelli exhibited his work at the Venice Biennial and at the Pesaro Gallery in Milan. Together with other prominent avant-garde artists, he participated in various foreign exhibitions on modern Italian painting...
Category

1930s Modern Portrait Paintings

Materials

Oil

Woman on Sofa - Painting by Antonio Feltrinelli - 1930s
Located in Roma, IT
Woman on Sofa is a modern artwork realized by Antonio Feltrinelli in the 1930s. Another painting of human figure on rear. Includes frame. Mixed colore...
Category

1930s Modern Portrait Paintings

Materials

Oil

Modern portrait paintings for sale on 1stDibs.

Find a wide variety of authentic Modern portrait paintings available for sale on 1stDibs. Works in this style were very popular during the 21st Century and Contemporary, but contemporary artists have continued to produce works inspired by this movement. If you’re looking to add portrait paintings created in this style to introduce contrast in an otherwise neutral space in your home, the works available on 1stDibs include elements of blue, orange, red and other colors. Many Pop art paintings were created by popular artists on 1stDibs, including Kevin Foote, Alkis Matheos, Robert Chapman, and Albert Decaris. Frequently made by artists working with Paint, and Oil Paint and other materials, all of these pieces for sale are unique and have attracted attention over the years. Not every interior allows for large Modern portrait paintings, so small editions measuring 2 inches across are also available. Prices for portrait paintings made by famous or emerging artists can differ depending on medium, time period and other attributes. On 1stDibs, the price for these items starts at $1 and tops out at $800,000, while the average work sells for $2,250.

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