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Old Masters Paintings

OLD MASTERS

Encompassing centuries of change in Europe between 1300 and 1800, from booms of prosperity to bloody revolutions, Old Masters describes a wide range of artists. The informal term was derived from the title of an artist who trained in a guild long enough to become a master, such as Leonardo da Vinci, who studied in a Florence painters’ guild. However, Old Masters paintings, prints and other art is now used to refer to work made by any artist with a high level of skill in painting, drawing, sculpture or printmaking who worked during this era.

The 15th century’s expansive trade and commerce spread culture across borders. A vibrant period of art emerged, bolstered by studies of anatomy and nature that influenced a new visual realism. From Raphael and Michelangelo in the Renaissance to Rembrandt van Rijn and Johannes Vermeer in the Dutch Golden Age, artists expressed emotion, naturalism, color and light in new ways. El Greco and Paolo Veronese were leaders in the dramatic style of Mannerism, while Caravaggio and Peter Paul Rubens demonstrated the movement and meticulous detail of Baroque art.

Historically, most attention was concentrated on male artists, but recent research and exhibitions have elevated the impactful work of women such as Rachel Ruysch and Artemisia Gentileschi. In late-18th-century France, female artists like Adélaïde Labille-Guiard and Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun were prominent names. Nevertheless, access to the academies and guilds was highly restricted for women, and even those able to establish practices were expected to adhere to portraits and still lifes rather than the grand history paintings being created by men.

Find a collection of Old Masters prints, paintings, drawings and watercolors and other art on 1stDibs.

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Style: Old Masters
Peasants in a Cornfield (Boer in het veld) by David Teniers the Younger
Located in Stockholm, SE
Remembering the magic of everyday life moments in the art of David Teniers: The art of David Teniers the Younger (1610–1690) coincided with the heyday of the Flemish Baroque and captured a great variety of motifs of his time. In this painting of a seemingly simple peasant scene lies keys to understanding both the imaginative mind of Teniers as well as why this time period produced some of the most iconic works in all of art history.  As indicated by the name, Teniers was more or less born into his profession. As the son of David Teniers the elder, himself a painter who studied under Rubens, the younger David received training in art from a very young age and had no less than three brothers who also became painters. Because of his father’s frequent financial failures that even at times saw him imprisoned, David the younger helped to rescue the family from ruin through painting copies of old masters. Essentially, the young Teniers was confronted with painting as both a passion and creative expression as well as a necessity during difficult times, an experience that would shape much of his capacity and sensitivity in his coming life. Despite the hardships, the talent and determination of Teniers was recognized and quickly expanded his possibilities. He had already spent time in France and possibly also England when he was hired by his father’s former teacher Rubens to help with a prestigious commission with mythological paintings, now considered lost, for Philip IV the king Spain. In 1644–54 Teniers was appointed dean of the Antwerp Guild of Saint Luke, manifesting his esteemed position within the artistic community. A few years afterwards he took an important step when relocating to Brussels, where Teniers yet again found new career opportunities that would prove to be very successful. As the keeper of the collections of Archduke Leopold Wilhelm, a role similar to what we now refer to as an art advisor, Teniers purchased hundreds of important artworks that manifested the prominent status of the Archduke’s collection while at the same time providing an unusual access to inspiration and knowledge for Teniers himself. Since he kept on painting during the same time, his creative scope must have seemed almost bewildering in the great variety of images and stories that he surrounded himself with.  Regardless of how glamorous and culturally stimulating the career of Teniers was, he was as open to the charm and existential importance of everyday life as he was to works of great masters and luxurious collectibles. In his impressive repertoire of genres with everything from exquisite royal portraits, interiors, landscapes and history paintings he always added something new and inventive, highlighting the possibilities of art and importance of an experimental and intuitive mind. It is difficult to single out one aspect or genre to summarize his legacy, since it lies much more in the broad virtuosity across many motifs, although he is particularly remembered for farm scenes and meticulously depicted interiors where other paintings and artworks are captured with an astonishing precision. However, the fact that he is still today one of the most known and celebrated names of the Dutch Golden Age is a proof to the magic of his work, which continues to spark dialogue and wonder in the contemporary viewer of his works. The farm boy in the field in this painting, which likely dates to the mature part of his career, is a wonderful entry into the mind of Teniers. In the tightly cropped motif, we see him standing right in the middle of the busy harvest when men, women and everyone capable were sent out in the field to collect the crop that formed the very core of their diet and survival. In the background we see a fresh blue sky interspersed with skillfully painted clouds, some trees reaching their autumnal colours and in the far distance the glimpse of a small church and village. The presence of a church in a landscape, so typical of Dutch art, served both a symbolic and visual function as a representation of faith while at the same time defining scale and distance. In the field, the work is in full action with the farmers spread out in various positions, all in the midst of hard and sweaty labour. While they are portrayed as having nothing else than the work on their mind, our farm boy seems to have his attention directed elsewhere. Standing there with his white, half open shirt, flowy curls and strong, sturdy body; his gaze is directed away, out of the picture and the scythes in his hands. He looks almost smirking, expressed with tremendous subtlety in the slight smile of his lips and big eyes, being just in the middle of losing focus on the work. What is it that steals his attention? What has he seen, or realized, or felt – to break him free of the arduous task of harvesting, if but for a moment? Here starts the wondering and the questions that are the hallmark of a great piece of art. Instead of explicitly locking in the motif in overly clear symbolism Teniers has chosen an open ended, subtle yet striking moment for us to consider. While it of course can be related to numerous other farm scene depictions of this time, and clever usages of gazes and real-life scenes to underscore various moral or symbolic meanings, the painting can be much more of a contemplation than an explanation or illustration. The ordinary nature and understated yet emotionally textured composition of the motif gives greater space for our own reactions and thoughts. Has he seen a pretty farm girl just passing by? Is he fed up with the farm life, joyously dreaming away for a minute, imagining another future? Or is he simply in need of distraction, looking away and ready for anything that can steal his attention? One quality that never seem to have escaped Teniers was that of curiosity. During all of his career he constantly investigated, expanded and experimented with not only the style and technique of painting, but with the vision of art itself. Being credited with more or less introducing farm motifs for a broader audience not only tells us of his ability to understand the demand for different motifs, but the sensitivity to transform seemingly ordinary parts of life into deep aesthetic experiences, far beyond their expected reach. The farm boy in this painting is, of course, exactly that. But with the help of one smirk the entire picture is charged with a different energy, awakening many contrasts and relationships between the calm landscape, the hard work and his own breach of effectivity, holding sharp scythes while thinking or seeing something else. It is no wonder Teniers chose to work with farm scenes as a way of investigating these intricate and delicate plays on expectations and surprises, clarity and ambivalence. It invites us to an appreciation of human everyday life that connects us with the people of 17th century...
Category

Late 17th Century Old Masters Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

17th Century Oil Painting Still Life: Turtles & Fish with a Ship in Stormy Seas
Located in London, GB
A Still Life of Turtles, An Eel, Pike, Lobsters and other Fish on the Shore, A Ship in the Stormy Seas Beyond Signed and dated lower left 1640 Inscribed with inventory number lower r...
Category

17th Century Old Masters Paintings

Materials

Oil

Portrait Paint Oil on canvas Old master 16/17th Century Italian Raffaello Art
Located in Riva del Garda, IT
Tuscan painter active towards the end of the 16th century Portrait of Captain Niccolò Orsini (Pitigliano, 1442 - Lonigo, 1510), count of Pitigliano and Nola. Tuscany, end of the 16th century Oil on canvas, 64 x 47 cm., Framed 89 x 73 cm. The portrait we present to you shows the effigy of a vigorous high-ranking male figure in armor, in the most typical Renaissance pose, half-length and taken in profile, with his face and gaze turned to the side; the serious and intense expression and the facial features evoke at first glance the portraiture of early Florentine mannerism. He is Niccolò III Orsini (Pitigliano, 1442 - Lonigo, 1510), count of Pitigliano and Nola and son of Aldobrandino Orsini, famous leader and captain (or capitano di ventura) who lived between the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, who served for the state Pontifical in Naples and Florence and above all for the Republic of Venice. Portraiture with these characters, which derives from ancient coinage, was used in the sixteenth century in the sequences of Portraits of Illustrious Men, both in painting and in sculpture. The profile portrait was in fact a genre reserved, according to the Renaissance tradition, for celebrations, presenting those characteristics of imperturbability typical of the military role covered. Our painting is a work created by an author active in Tuscany towards the end of the sixteenth century, adhering to those pictorial styles made famous by the portraitist Cristofano di Papi dell'Altissimo (1530-1605), a pupil of Bronzino and then of Pontormo, known for having created a collection of about 500 portraits of illustrious men, known as the 'Gioviana Series' (now in the Uffizi Gallery); and among these it is possible to identify one dedicated to Niccolò Orsini. Our painting is inspired, in particular, by a print taken from the collection of prints...
Category

16th Century Old Masters Paintings

Materials

Oil

18th C. Portrait of the 4th Earl of Sandwich a View of Constantinople Beyond
Located in London, GB
John Montagu, 4th Earl of Sandwich (13 November 1718 – 30 April 1792) Attributed to George Knapton (1698-1778) Dressed in the Turkish manner, stand...
Category

18th Century Old Masters Paintings

Materials

Oil

An Architectural Capriccio with the Preaching of an Apostle
By Giovanni Paolo Panini
Located in New York, NY
Provenance: Santambrogio Antichità, Milan; sold, 2007 to: Filippo Pernisa, Milan; by whom sold, 2010, to: Private Collection, Melide, Switzerland De Primi Fine Art, Lugano, Switzerland; from whom acquired, 2011 by: Private Collection, Connecticut (2011-present) Literature: Ferdinando Arisi, “Ancora sui dipinti giovanili del Panini,” Strenna Piacentina (Piacenza, 2009): pp. 48, 57, 65, fig. 31, as by Panini Ferdinando Arisi, “Panini o Ghisolfi o Carlieri? A proposito dei dipinti giovanili,” Strenna Piacentina, (Piacenza, 2010), pp. 100, 105, 116, fig. 101, as an early work by Panini, a variant of Panini’s painting in the Museo Cristiano, Esztergom, Hungary. This architectural capriccio is one of the earliest paintings by Giovanni Paolo Panini, the preeminent painter of vedute and capricci in 18th-century Rome. The attribution to Panini has been endorsed by Ferdinando Arisi, and a recent cleaning of the painting revealed the artist’s signature in the lower right. Like many of his fellow painters working in Rome during his day, Panini was not a native of the Eternal City. He first trained as a painter and stage designer in his hometown of Piacenza and moved to Rome at the age of 20 in November 1711 to study figure painting. Panini joined the workshop of Benedetto Luti (1666-1724) and from 1712 was living on the Piazza Farnese. Panini, like many before and after him, was spellbound by Rome and its classical past. He remained in the city for the rest of his career, specializing in depicting Rome’s most important monuments, as well as creating picturesque scenes like this one that evoked the city’s ancient splendor. The 18th century art historian Lione Pascoli, who likely knew Panini personally, records in his 1730 biography of the artist that when Panini came to Rome, he was already “an excellent master and a distinguished painter of perspective, landscape, and architecture.” Panini’s earliest works from this period still show the evidence of his artistic formation in Piacenza, especially the influence of the view painter Giovanni Ghisolfi (1623-1683). However, they were also clearly shaped by his contact in Rome with the architectural capricci of Alberto Carlieri...
Category

18th Century Old Masters Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

!8th century Irish or English portrait of a woman with Ermin, blue dressing lace
Located in Woodbury, CT
Wonderful 18th century Irish or English portrait, attributed to the Irish painter Nathaniel Hone. Nathaniel Hone was born in Dublin but by 1748 had set...
Category

1780s Old Masters Paintings

Materials

Oil

17th Century Spanish school oil painting of the Holy Trinity
Located in Petworth, West Sussex
Spanish school, 17th Century The Holy Trinity Oil on canvas laid on board 18 x 12.3/8 in. (48.2 x 31.5 cm.) Framed in a blackwood moulding with gilt slip
Category

17th Century Old Masters Paintings

Materials

Oil, Board

17th Century Classical Oil Painting - Diana With Her Attendants in a Grotto
By Abraham van Cuylenborch
Located in London, GB
Abraham van CUYLENBROCH (1620-1658) Diana With Her Attendants in a Grotto 1651 signed oil on panel 12.2 in x 15.7 inches, inc. frame; 31 x 40 cm Provenance: Sale of Sotheby's Lo...
Category

17th Century Old Masters Paintings

Materials

Oil

18th Century European Portrait of a Child Saint John the Baptist
Located in SANTA FE, NM
18th Century European Portrait of a Child Saint John the Baptist Oil on Canvas 19 x 14 1/4 inches This lovely and sensitively painting has been examined by a professional restorer w...
Category

18th Century Old Masters Paintings

Materials

Oil, Canvas

17th century Dutch portrait of a Lady in Red adorned with Pearls
By Pieter Nason
Located in Bath, Somerset
Portrait of a lady, half-length in a feigned oval wearing a ruby coloured silk gown holding entwined strings of pearls across her bodice. Signed 'PNason' and dated 1667 (lower right)...
Category

17th Century Old Masters Paintings

Materials

Oil, Canvas

FINE 17TH CENTURY ITALIAN OLD MASTER OIL ON CANVAS - THE BATHING OF BATHSHEBA
Located in Cirencester, Gloucestershire
Artist/ School: Italian School, 17th century Title: The Bathing of Bathsheba Medium: oil painting, on canvas Size: frame: 23 x 19 inches, canvas: 18 x 14 inches Provenanc...
Category

17th Century Old Masters Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Animal painting of a 'Tamanuâguacû (Ant-eater)' late 17th/18th century, Brazil
Located in Amsterdam, NL
Follower of Zacharias Wagener (1614-1688) Tamanuâguasû (Giant Anteater) On Italian 17th or 18th-century paper, H. 28 x W. 43.5 cm ​The present painting is a copy after Wagener’s painting of the anteater, Tamanduá-bandeira, which is illustrated in his “Thier Buch”, with 109 drawings of Brazilian fish, birds and mammals, published in Amsterdam c. 1641, in German. ​ Zacharias Wagener, or Wagenaer in Dutch, (Dresden 1614 – Amsterdam 1668) was a real adventurer who became Opperhoofd on Deshima and Governor of the Cape of Good Hope in the service of the VOC. During the Thirty-Year War in Germany Wagener tried his luck in Amsterdam where he worked for the map-maker Willem Blaeu. In 1634 he joined the WIC and left for Dutch Brazil where he worked as writer and painter, together with Frans Post...
Category

Early 18th Century Old Masters Paintings

Materials

Paper, India Ink, Gouache

19th CENTURY FRENCH ANTIQUE OIL ON PANEL - FRENCH SOLDIERS MAKING CAMP
Located in Cirencester, Gloucestershire
Artist/ School: French School, 19th century Title: The Soldiers Camp Medium: oil painting on thick wooden panel, with a bevel edge Size: painting: 12.5 x 22 inches, frame: 16.5 ...
Category

19th Century Old Masters Paintings

Materials

Oil, Wood

Old Master portrait of a lady musician by the master or portraiture
Located in Petworth, West Sussex
Attributed to Pierre Paul Prud’hon (French, 1758-1823) 'La belle musicienne' Oil on canvas, oval Signed ‘P. P. Prudon’ (lower left) 28.3/4 x 23.1/2 in. (73 x 59.5 cm.) Pierre Paul Prud'hon is considered a prime example of early French Romanticism. He was born as the seventh and last child of a master tailor. At the age of 16 he was a pupil of the painter and sculptor Francois Devosge. After finishing his studies he moved to Paris, where he first worked for an engraver and became friends with the Baron of Joursanvault, who became his patron. He also made a friendship with the "incorruptible", the politician and revolutionary Maximilien de Robespierre. Despite important friendships and the care of some cardinals, Prud'hon plunges into loneliness and melancholy. He has a good reputation and produces allegorical paintings, but his attachment to Robespierre forces him to leave the French capital. He now lives in the Free County of Burgundy, where he makes portraits and illustrations for Pierre Didot, the owner of the printing house. After a few years he moved back to Paris and his career received a new impetus. In the Louvre, Prud'hon is provided with a studio in which he paints "La sagesse et la vérité descendant sur la terre" (Wisdom and Truth descend to earth) for one year, as well as some ceilings of the Louvre. The government assigns him a studio in the Sorbonne, where his wife Jeanne, whom he married at the age of 19, comes looking for him. To escape her, he asks the museum director for protection. In 1808 he wrote "La justice et la vengeance divine poursuivant le crime" (Justice and divine revenge pursue the crime). In the same year he is also named Knight of the Legion of Honour and is able to break with his grumpy wife once and for all. He soon reconnects with his student and painter of neoclassicism Constance Mayer. Pierre is commissioned to paint a portrait of the Empress and wife of Napoleon, Joséphine de Beauharnais, which can still be seen today in the Louvre. He also paints the small "Roi de Rome" (King of Rome). In 1816 the Academy of Fine Arts elected him a member, where he took over the armchair in the painting section of François-André Vincent. A few years later his depressed wife commits suicide, and full of pain Prud'hon finishes her last work "Une famille malheureuse" (Engl. An Unhappy Family) and exhibits it. He himself dies soon afterwards and is buried in Paris. Many renowned artists admire Prud'hon for his "clair-obscur", the chiaroscuro painting...
Category

18th Century Old Masters Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

18th century portrait of the artist’s daughter, Catharina, playing the cello
Located in Bath, Somerset
The sitter, seated in a yellow silk gown trimmed with a pink bow playing the cello, is believed to be the artist Balthazar Denner's eldest daughter Catharina (1715-1744), after his marriage to Esther Winter in Hamburg in 1712. She is also recognisable in another portrait of the Denner family in the Hamburg Kunsthalle, painted circa 1740 by the artist's son, Jacob Denner (1722-1765). Oil on canvas in a period giltwood frame. Provenance: Private collection, Northern Germany Professor Helmut Borsch-Supan, Berlin, confirmed the authenticity of the painting after examining it in 2013. The painting will also be included in the forthcoming catalogue raisonnée of the artist, by Ute Mannhardt. Balthasar Denner...
Category

Early 18th Century Old Masters Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Circa 1400, Spanish school of 'The Prophet Daniel', tempera on panel with gildin
Located in Petworth, West Sussex
Spanish school, circa 1400 The prophet Daniel Tempera on panel with gilding 35.1/4 x 10.5/8 in. (89.5 x 28 cm.) Condition: The painting has been recently stabilised and cleaned up. ...
Category

15th Century and Earlier Old Masters Paintings

Materials

Tempera, Wood Panel

Christian Charity - Tempera by the circle of Bernardo Strozzi - 1630s
By Bernardo Strozzi
Located in Roma, IT
Christian Charity is an original Old Master Painting realized in the first half of the XVII Century, most probably in the 1630s, by one of the pupils of the Italian artist Bernardo Strozzi...
Category

1630s Old Masters Paintings

Materials

Tempera, Canvas

View of St. John’s Cathedral, Antigua
Located in New York, NY
Provenance: Robert Hollberton, Antigua, ca. 1841 Private Collection, New York The present painting depicts Old St. John’s Cathedral on the island of Antigua. The church was erected in the 1720s on the designs of the architect Robert Cullen. It measured 130 feet by 50 feet with north and south porches 23 x 20 ½ feet. The tower, 50 feet high with its cupola, was added in 1789. The church was elevated to the status of a cathedral, but disaster struck in the form of an earthquake that destroyed the building on 8 February 1843. A memorandum of that date relates the event: “On Wednesday, 8th February, 1843, this island was visited by a most terrific and destructive earthquake. At twenty minutes before eleven o’clock in the forenoon, while the bell was ringing for prayers, and the venerable Robert Holberton was in the vestry-room, awaiting the arrival of persons to have their marriage solemnized, before the commencement of the morning service, the whole edifice, from one end to the other, was suddenly and violently agitated. Every one within the church, after the first shock, was compelled to escape for his life. The tower was rent from the top to the bottom; the north dial of the clock precipitated to the ground with a dreadful crash; the east parapet wall of the tower thrown upon the roof of the church; almost the whole of the north-west wall by the north gallery fell out in a mass; the north-east wall was protruded beyond the perpendicular; the altar-piece, the public monument erected to the memory of lord Lavington, and the private monuments, hearing the names of Kelsick, Warner, Otley, and Atkinson, fell down piecemeal inside; a large portion of the top of the east wall fell, and the whole of the south-east wall was precipitated into the churchyard, carrying along with it two of the cast-iron windows, while the other six remained projecting from the walls in which they had been originally inserted; a large pile of heavy cut stones and masses of brick fell down at the south and at the north doors; seven of the large frontpipes of the organ were thrown out by the violence of the shock, and many of the metal and wooden pipes within displaced; the massive basin of the font was tossed from the pedestal on which it rested, and pitched upon the pavement beneath uninjured. Thus, within the space of three minutes, this church was reduced to a pile of crumbling ruins; the walls that were left standing being rent in every part, the main roof only remaining sound, being supported by the hard wood pillars.” The entrance from the southern side into the cathedral, which was erected in 1789, included two imposing statues, one of Saint John the Divine and the other of Saint John the Baptist in flowing robes. It is said that these statues were confiscated by the British Navy from the French ship HMS Temple in Martinique waters in 1756 during the Seven Years’ War and moved to the church. The statues are still in situ and can be seen today, much as they appeared in Bisbee’s painting, but with the new cathedral in the background (Fig. 1). Little is known of the career of Ezra Bisbee. He was born in Sag Harbor, New York in 1808 and appears to have had a career as a political cartoonist and a printmaker. His handsome Portrait of President Andrew Jackson is dated 1833, and several political lithographs...
Category

19th Century Old Masters Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Flemish Old Master oil painting of a still life with flowers in a vase
Located in Petworth, West Sussex
Flemish school, 17th Century Narcissi and other summer blooms in a glass vase on a ledge Oil on canvas 18.7/8 x 14.3/4 in. (48 x 37.3 cm.)
Category

17th Century Old Masters Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

18th Century English Oil Landscape Painting: Elegant Figures alongside River Wye
By Attributed to William Marlow
Located in London, GB
Attributed to William Marlow (English, 1740-1813) Elegant Figures alongside the River Wye 1790 131 x 152 cm, inc. frame This quiet bucolic scene shows figur...
Category

Late 18th Century Old Masters Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Portrait of Jean-Baptiste Greuze, painted on linen by his daughter Anna Greuze
Located in PARIS, FR
This replica of the last self-portrait of Jean-Baptiste Greuze painted in 1804, executed by his daughter Anna at her father's side and recently rediscovered, provides us with a poignant image of the great artist, represented with panache despite the disillusions of life. 1. Jean-Baptiste Greuze Jean-Baptiste Greuze was the sixth child of a roofer from Tournus and retained a certain rusticity in his behaviour from his provincial childhood, beyond his taste for describing picturesque scenes of the countryside. He initially started training with a little-known painter from Lyon, Charles Grandon, before his genius was recognised in Paris where he became a full-time student of the Académie (of Painting) in 1755. He exhibited his work for the first time at the Salon during the summer of 1755, before leaving on a trip to Italy in the company of Louis Gougenot, abbot of Chezal-Benoît. Upon his return to Paris, Greuze became a prolific painter, participating widely in the Salons held between 1759 and 1765, to which he sent no less than 63 paintings: numerous genre scenes (The Marriage Contract, The Beloved Mother), but also portraits of his family circle, of courtiers and art lovers, or of his colleagues. The Academy closed the doors of the Salons to him in 1767 for not having produced his reception piece within six months of his reception, as was the tradition. He worked actively on this painting (Emperor Severus rebukes Caracalla, his son, for trying to assassinate him ) until the summer of 1769, tackling historical and mythological subjects for the first time. Once this was completed, he was then fully admitted to the Academy, but as a genre painter, and not as an historical painter, which had been one of the greatest humiliations of his life. Greuze then refused any participation in events organised by the Academy or its successor, the Academy of Fine Arts until 1800. Abandoning history painting, he gave a new twist to genre scenes, bringing them closer to history painting, as in this pair of canvases which constitutes some of his masterpieces: The Paternal Curse: The Ungrateful Son and The Paternal Curse: The Punished Son . Married in 1759 to Anne-Gabrielle Babuti, the daughter of a Parisian bookseller, his marriage was unhappy and his wife probably frequently unfaithful. The institution of divorce enabled him to record their separation in 1793, keeping his two daughters Anna-Geneviève, born in April 1762, and Louise-Gabrielle, born in May 1764, with him. Little is known about his daughter Anna except that she was herself a painter and lived with her father until his death. It is likely that most of the paintings she produced up to that date were attributed to her father, whose technique she shared to a great extent, making it extremely difficult to establish an autonomous corpus of her paintings. Greuze died in his studio at the Louvre on March 21st 1805. The attention paid to the expressivity of his characters and the emotional charge they convey enabled Jean-Baptiste Greuze to enjoy immense popularity with the eighteenth-century public, and they still constitute Greuze's true modernity. As the artist said, "I dipped my brush in my heart". Greuze was also an exceptional draughtsman and a portraitist of immense talent and exceptional longevity who painted both the Dauphin (the son of Louis XV and father to Louis XVI) and the young Napoleon Bonaparte. 2. Greuze's self-portraits Greuze was very much influenced by Dutch paintings during all his life. While the source of his inspiration for genre scenes can be found in Gerard Dou...
Category

Early 1800s Old Masters Paintings

Materials

Linen, Oil

Dutch School 18th Century - Lively Marine
Located in Saint-Ouen, FR
Dutch School End Of 18th Century Lively Marine on the bank of Estuary Oil on wood Panel recently consolidated on the back (see picture) No crack or filure on the wood panel Framed by...
Category

Late 18th Century Old Masters Paintings

Materials

Oil

FINE 18th CENTURY OLD MASTER CHALK DRAWING - ROMANESQUE FIGURES INTERIOR SCENE
Located in Cirencester, Gloucestershire
Artist/ School: French School, 18th century Title: Classical figures within an interior. Medium: chalk on paper, mounted. Size: drawing: 11.5 x 13.5 inches Provenance:...
Category

Early 18th Century Old Masters Paintings

Materials

Chalk

17th Century Italian Old Master Oil - Presentation of the Virgin in the Temple
Located in Cirencester, Gloucestershire
Artist/ School: 17th Century Italian School Title: The Presentation of the Virgin in the Temple Medium: oil painting on canvas, framed Size: canvas: 21” x 16” (53.3 x 40.8cm) Pro...
Category

17th Century Old Masters Paintings

Materials

Oil

Elegant Georgian Young Ladies Woodland Park Antique English Oil Painting
Located in Cirencester, Gloucestershire
'Morning Amusement' English School, circa 1800's after the painting by Sir Joshua Reynolds, British 1723-1792 oil painting on canvas, unframed please...
Category

Early 19th Century Old Masters Paintings

Materials

Oil

Head of an Angel
Located in New York, NY
Procaccini was born in Bologna, but his family moved to Milan when the artist was eleven years old. His artistic education was evidently familial— from his father Ercole and his elder brothers Camillo and Carlo Antonio, all painters—but his career began as a sculptor, and at an early age: his first known commission, a sculpted saint for the Duomo of Milan, came when he was only seventeen years old. Procaccini’s earliest documented painting, the Pietà for the Church of Santa Maria presso San Celso in Milan, was completed by 1604. By this time the artist had made the trip to Parma recorded by his biographers, where he studied Correggio, Mazzola Bedoli, and especially Parmigianino; reflections of their work are apparent throughout Procaccini's career. As Dr. Hugh Brigstocke has recently indicated, the present oil sketch is preparatory for the figure of the angel seen between the heads of the Virgin and St. Charles Borrommeo in Procaccini's altarpiece in the Church of Santa Afra in Brescia (ill. in Il Seicento Lombardo; Catalogo dei dipinti e delle sculture, exh. cat. Milan 1973, no. 98, pl. 113). As such it is the only known oil sketch of Procaccini's that can be directly connected with an extant altarpiece. The finished canvas, The Virgin and Child with Saints Charles Borrommeo and Latino with Angels, remains in the church for which it was painted; it is one of the most significant works of Procaccini's maturity and is generally dated after the artist's trip to Genoa in 1618. The Head of an Angel is an immediate study, no doubt taken from life, but one stylistically suffused with strong echoes of Correggio and Leonardo. Luigi Lanzi, writing of the completed altarpiece in 1796, specifically commented on Procaccini's indebtedness to Correggio (as well as the expressions of the angels) here: “Di Giulio Cesare...
Category

17th Century Old Masters Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Paper, Oil

Portrait of a Lady
Located in London, GB
Attributted to Barthel Bruyn the Elder 1493–1555 Portrait of a Archduchess Margaret of Austria Oil on wood panel Image size: 10 inches (25.5 cm) Faux tortoiseshell frame Provenance North England Estate The Artist The date of Bartholomaeus (or Barthel) Bruyn's birth, 1493, can be deduced from a portrait medal by Friedrich Hagenauer which is dated 1539 and gives the artist's age as 46. The exact place of his birth is unknown, but was almost certainly in the region of the Lower Rhine. Bruyn entered the workshop of Jan Joest and assisted in painting the high altar of the Nikolaikirche, Kalkar, executed between 1505 and 1508. Also in Joest's atelier at this time was Joos van Cleve...
Category

16th Century Old Masters Paintings

Materials

Oil

Early 18th Century Oil After Francis Wheatley, The Taming of The Shrew
Located in London, GB
After Francis Wheatley, circa 1800 The Taming of the Shrew Oil on canvas; held in a period style frame. Dimensions refer to size of frame Artists and patrons in the eighteenth ...
Category

Early 1800s Old Masters Paintings

Materials

Oil

FINE 17th CENTURY ITALIAN OLD MASTER OIL PAINTING - FIGURES GARDENING LANDSCAPE
Located in Cirencester, Gloucestershire
"The Working Landscape" Italian School, 17th century oil painting on canvas, framed canvas: 42.5cm x 60cm framed: 50.5cm x 68cm Fine quality Italian Old Master oil painting on can...
Category

Mid-17th Century Old Masters Paintings

Materials

Oil, Canvas

Peasants Playing Bowls Outside an Inn, 17th Century Oil on Oak Old Master
Located in London, GB
Studio of David Teniers the Younger 1610 - 1690 Peasants Playing Bowls Outside an Inn Oil on oak cradled panel, signed Image size: 16 ½ x 22 ½ inches Gilt s...
Category

17th Century Old Masters Paintings

Materials

Oil

18th century oil portrait of Margaret Peg Woffington by Jeremiah Davison
Located in London, GB
Margaret 'Peg' Woffington, was born in Dublin around 1714. Her charm and beauty as a child attracted much attention quickly resulting in her first stage role at the precocious age of 10. Her first important appearance was as Ophelia in 1737 in Dublin, followed by her greatest role, the male part of Sir Harry Windair in Farquhar's Constant Couple, which in 1740 led to her engagement by John Rich...
Category

Mid-18th Century Old Masters Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

18th century allegorical painting of The Triumph of Beauty
Located in London, GB
Exhibited: London, Royal Academy, 1800, no. 93 What was happening in British history painting in around 1800? In recent discussions of the emergence of a British School of history painting following the foundation of the Royal Academy in 1768, this is a question which is rarely posed and one which is not easily answered. Examination of surviving Royal Academy exhibition catalogues reveals a profusion of artists’ names and titles, few of which remain immediately recognizable, whilst endeavours to explain the impact of exhibition culture on painting - such as the 2001 Courtauld show Art on the Line - have tended to focus on the first and second generation of Royal Academician, rather than young or aspiring artists in the early nineteenth century. This makes the discovery and identification of the work under discussion of exceptional importance in making sense of currents in English painting around 1800. Executed by Edward Dayes...
Category

18th Century Old Masters Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

16th Century Italian Renaissance Old Master Portrait of a Procuratore
By Jacopo Bassano
Located in London, GB
Jacopo BASSANO (c. 1510-1592, Italian) Portrait of a Procuratore Oil on canvas 30 ¼ x 26 inches (including frame) Provenance: Lucien Bonaparte’s Collection (as Portrait of Doge Priuli, Tiziano); Rich-mond, Virginia Museum, Portrait of Doge Lorenzo Priuli. The painting is a portrait of a man half-length, on a black background. It is a three-quarter portrait, according to a custom very common in the genre of portraiture in sixteenth century. The man is wearing a decorated...
Category

16th Century Old Masters Paintings

Materials

Oil

Portrait Of A Lady, Frances Bard (1646-1702) Mistress of The Duke Of Cumberland
By Anthony van Dyck
Located in Blackwater, GB
Portrait Of A Lady, Frances Bard (1646-1702) Mistress of Prince Rupert von de Pfalz, Duke of Cumberland (1619-1882) follower of Anthony Van Dyck (1...
Category

Late 17th Century Old Masters Paintings

Materials

Oil

18th Century, Antique Oil Painting, Old Master. Portrait of Mother with child.
Located in Berlin, DE
18th century, antique painting, oil on canvas, old master. Mother with child. Relined canvas. Stretcher frame also renewed. Artist unknown.
Category

18th Century Old Masters Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Henry Pickering, Portrait of a Gentleman
By Henry Pickering
Located in London, GB
Henry Pickering, Portrait of a Gentleman Oil on canvas; signed and dated 1759; held in a giltwood period frame Provenance: Lenygon & Morant Ltd. c.1900; Knoedler, October 1912 (Sto...
Category

Mid-18th Century Old Masters Paintings

Materials

Oil

REGATTA IN THE GULF -English School Italian Sealing boat Oil on canvas Painting
Located in Napoli, IT
Regatta in the gulf - John Stevens Italia 2006 - Oil on canvas cm.40x80. Using thin washes of oil paint, John Stevens slowly builds up his highly detailed paintings of scenes of nava...
Category

Early 2000s Old Masters Paintings

Materials

Oil, Canvas

Two Arcadic Landscapes - J.F. Van Bloemen (follower of) - Oil on Canvas
Located in Roma, IT
Two Arcadic Landscapes are a couple of original oil paintings by a follower of the Flemish artist, Jan Frans Van Bloemen (1662-1749). These old master's original paintings represen...
Category

Early 18th Century Old Masters Paintings

Materials

Oil

French 18th Century Old Master oil painting of a soldier departing from his home
Located in Petworth, West Sussex
Circle of Jean-Baptiste Francois Pater (French, 1695-1736) Le depart du convoie Oil on canvas 36.1/2 x 39.3/4 in. (92.8 x 101 cm.)
Category

18th Century Old Masters Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

19thc century classical French portrait sketch of a North African mans head
Located in Woodbury, CT
Outstanding small oil on velum sketch of a North African/ Arab head study. The painting is a classic sketch and I'm sure the figure would have been used in a much larger finished w...
Category

1850s Old Masters Paintings

Materials

Oil

A Ray of Sunlight
Located in Atlanta, GA
Ruisdael is regarded as the principal figure among Dutch landscape painters of the second half of the 17th century. His naturalistic compositions and style representing massive forms...
Category

Early 19th Century Old Masters Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Stunning 17th Century Oil Painting - Study of a Head of a Man
By Anthony van Dyck
Located in London, GB
Studio of Sir Anthony Van Dyck (1599-1641, Flemish) Study of a Head of Man Circa 1627-32, Van Dyck’s second Antwerp period Oil on paper, laid down on canvas Dimensions 15 x 14 inches...
Category

17th Century Old Masters Paintings

Materials

Oil

Juliet and her Nurse with the Page Peter from Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet
Located in Long Island City, NY
Artist: Henry Perronet Briggs, Attributed to, English (1793 - 1844) Title: Juliet and Her Nurse with the Page Peter from Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet Year: circa 1820 Medium: Oil o...
Category

1820s Old Masters Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Portrait of a Lady, After Sir Peter Lely (1610-1680) Oil Painting
By After Sir Peter Lely
Located in Uppingham, GB
Oil Painting After Sir Peter Lely (1610-1680) Portrait of a Lady Housed in a Lely gold Leaf Frame. Peter Lely: In 1647 he became a member of the Pain...
Category

17th Century Old Masters Paintings

Materials

Oil

Cupid Paint Oil on canvas France Neo classicism Art Quality Love 18th century
Located in Riva del Garda, IT
Eighteenth-century French school Entourage de François Boucher (Paris 1703 - 1770) Cupid who shoots his arrow Oil on canvas, 48 ​​x 40 cm with frame 58 x 49 cm. The painting, of pl...
Category

18th Century Old Masters Paintings

Materials

Oil

Holy Family with the Infant St. John the Baptist
Located in New York, NY
Lubin Baugin (Pithiviers 1610 – 1663 Paris) Holy Family with the Infant Saint John the Baptist Oil on canvas 22 x 42 ¼ inches (55.9 x 107.3 cm) Provenance: Marcello and Carlo ...
Category

17th Century Old Masters Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Late 17th Century Oil on Canvas Portrait of a Lady by Charles Beale (1660-1714)
Located in London, GB
Portrait of a Lady circa 1690 Oil on canvas; held in a period carved and gilded frame Charles Beale Junior was the third son of the painter Mary Beal...
Category

Late 17th Century Old Masters Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Classical Landscape, Original Glazed Frame, Signed
Located in Cirencester, Gloucestershire
Grand Tour Study Italian School, 18th century monogrammed, lower right hand corner, Watercolour wash painting on board, glazed frame Framed size: 9 x 11 inches The painting captures...
Category

18th Century Old Masters Paintings

Materials

Watercolor

Self-Portrait - Royal Academy Founding Member, 18th Century
By Francis Hayman
Located in London, GB
Francis Hayman RA 1708–1776 Self-Portrait Oil on oak panel Image size: 8 x 6¼ inches Contemporary gilt frame This newly discovered work is the earliest known self portrait by Francis Hayman, dated to the mid to late 1720’s. The small scale of the portrait gives it a strong sense of intimacy. Whereas clients would often dress themselves in their best clothes for a sitting, Hayman has portrayed himself in informal attire, with his shirt unbuttoned and a wig cap. Born in 1708 to a respectable Devonshire family, his training began at the tender age of ten under the tutelage of the historical painter Robert Brown, who was probably an uncle. By the 1730’s he is known to have been engaged in painting scenery for the popular theatres on Goodman’s Fields and Drury Lane. He established a studio on St Martin’s Lane, and demonstrated his versatility as one of the most important painters of his time in portraits, illustration and history painting. Indeed, he was one of the first English painters deemed to have the skill and proficiency to rival that of the foreign masters, such as Holbein and Kneller, who were brought in by the court to make up for the perceived shortcomings of the native artists. Led by William Hogarth, Hayman and other artists began to create a new movement in the English art world. Thomas Gainsborough was one of his pupils, whom he is said to have introduced to the more lascivious and debauched underbelly of London life. After mostly making his living as an illustrator, in the 1740’s Hayman was commissioned by the proprietor of the Vauxhall Pleasure Gardens, Jonathan Tyers, to produce a series of four large celebratory canvases depicting British victories from the Seven Years War. His association with Tyers continued, and over the next ten years he produced a number of large decorative paintings...
Category

18th Century Old Masters Paintings

Materials

Oil Pastel, Oak

19th Century Landscape Oil Painting - Deer by the Banks of a Lake
By Jacob Thompson
Located in London, GB
Jacob THOMPSON (1806 – 1879) Deer by the Banks of a Lake 1842 oil on canvas 18.9 x 27.6 inches; 22.5 x 31 inches Inc. frame Jacob Thompson (1806–1879) was an English landscape-pa...
Category

1840s Old Masters Paintings

Materials

Oil

Russian oil painting 'The Chase' signed C. Stoiloff
Located in London, GB
Russian oil painting 'The Chase' signed C. Stoiloff Russian, early 20th Century Frame: Height 84cm, width 122cm, depth 7cm Canvas: Height 66cm, wi...
Category

20th Century Old Masters Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

17th Century, Old Master, "King Basileus Alexander of Macedon Magnus, the Great"
Located in Berlin, DE
Very decorative, 17th century, old master painting, oil on canvas, King Alexander Magnus, the great. Illustration of two children, putti, with wreaths of flowers on a board (or maus...
Category

17th Century Old Masters Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Wooden Landscape with Shepherds, Fountain and Flock - by Jan Frans van Bloemen
Located in Roma, IT
Bibliography: A.Busiri Vici, Jan Frans Van Bloemen Orizzonte e l’origine del paesaggio romano settecentesco, Ugo Bozzi Editore, Roma 1974, n.41 This artwork is shipped from Italy. U...
Category

18th Century Old Masters Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Grand 19th Century English Marine Painting in Stunning Light
By John Wilson Ewbank
Located in London, GB
John Wilson Ewbank (1799 - 1847) Shipping in the Harbour, South Shields Oil on canvas 39.5 x 58 inches unframed 47.75 x 66.5 inches framed Provenance: Christie's October 2002; Lot 11. Fine Art Society; Private Collection This marvellous up to scale Ewbank is full of light and warmth and almost certainly his greatest work of the sort rarely - if ever - seen on the market. John W. Ewbank (4 May 1799–28 November 1847), was an English-born landscape and marine painter largely operational from Scotland. The Humber river is a large tidal estuary on the east coast of Northern England. Life Ewbank was born at Darlington on 4 May 1799, the son of Michael Ewbank, an innkeeper. He was adopted as a child by a wealthy uncle who lived at Wycliffe, on the banks of the River Tees, in the North Riding of Yorkshire. Intended for the Roman Catholic priesthood, he was sent to Ushaw College, from which he absconded. In 1813 Ewbank was apprenticed to Thomas Coulson, an ornamental painter in Newcastle. In around 1816 he moved with Coulson to Edinburgh, where he had some lessons with Alexander Nasmyth. He found work both as a painter and a teacher. He was nominated in 1830 one of the foundation members of the Royal Scottish Academy. In 1833 he is listed as living at 7 Union Street on the eastern fringe of the New Town in Edinburgh. Works His sketches from nature were especially admired, and a series of 51 drawings of Edinburgh by him were engraved by W. H. Lizars for James Browne's Picturesque Views of Edinburgh (1825). He also made a reputation with cabinet pictures of banks of rivers, coast scenes, and marine subjects. As an illustrator he illustrated some early editions of Scott's Waverley Novels and one edition of Gilbert White...
Category

19th Century Old Masters Paintings

Materials

Oil

Portrait of a Man
Located in London, GB
Circle of Cornelis Dusart Dutch 1660 - 1704 Portrait of a Man Oil on panel Image size: 7¾ x 5¼ inches Giltwood frame Cornelis Dusart Cornelis ...
Category

17th Century Old Masters Paintings

Materials

Panel, Oil

DRAWING OF NAKED MAN
Located in Napoli, IT
DRAWING OF NAKED MAN - Study of light by Gennaro Luciano, Naples, 1920, with ebony frame. Cm.65x48.
Category

1920s Old Masters Paintings

Materials

Pencil, Paper

Le Voyage - Halte au bord de l'Oued
By Georges Washington
Located in Paris, FR
Georges Washington 1827-1910 American Le Voyage - Halte au bord de l'Oued Oil on canvas Signed lower right Canvas: 16 7/8" high x 23 5/8" wide Frame: 29...
Category

Late 19th Century Old Masters Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Oil Painting of Landscape with 'The Papal Palace at Avignon'
By Pieter Bout
Located in London, GB
Provenance: Sotheby’s December 5th 2006, Lot 388 Bout was a Flemish painter, draughtsman and etcher. He is known mainly for his landscapes, city, coast and country views and archite...
Category

Early 18th Century Old Masters Paintings

Materials

Oil

Old Masters paintings for sale on 1stDibs.

Find a wide variety of authentic Old Masters 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 paintings created in this style to introduce contrast in an otherwise neutral space in your home, the works available on 1stDibs include elements of orange, blue, yellow and other colors. Many Pop art paintings were created by popular artists on 1stDibs, including Antonio Savisio, Pietro Colonna, Goyo Dominguez, and Nicolaes Maes. 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 Old Masters paintings, so small editions measuring 4.5 inches across are also available. Prices for 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 $338 and tops out at $1,495,000, while the average work sells for $7,505.

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