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Ken Hamilton

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Oil on Board 'Irish Eyes' by Ken Hamilton
By Ken Hamilton
Located in Belfast, GB
Measure: 9.5 x 7.5 inches (19 x 17 inches framed) Oil on board Signed in Mono Framed Ken Hamilton
Category

21st Century and Contemporary Portrait Paintings

I dance because I cannot fly, but when I dance I can fly. Title - Ballerina
Located in East Hampton, NY
Ken Hamilton is one of the most celebrated figurative painters working today in the British Isles
Category

2010s Realist Portrait Paintings

Materials

Gold Leaf

With the beauty of her entire heritage. Title - La Espanolita
Located in East Hampton, NY
Ken Hamilton is one of the most celebrated figurative painters in the British Isles. His jewel-like
Category

2010s Realist Portrait Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil, Board

Lips of rouge, bands of gold. Title - Girl in a Kimono
Located in East Hampton, NY
Ken Hamilton is one of the most celebrated figurative painters in the British Isles. His jewel-like
Category

2010s Realist Portrait Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil, Board

Character, presence, beauty in oils and gold leaf. Title - Raven-Haired Girl
Located in East Hampton, NY
Ken Hamilton is one of the most celebrated figurative painters in the British Isles. His jewel-like
Category

2010s Realist Portrait Paintings

Materials

Gold Leaf

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Ken Hamilton For Sale on 1stDibs

On 1stDibs, you can find the most appropriate ken hamilton for your needs in our varied inventory. In our selection of items, you can find Photorealist examples as well as an abstract version. Finding the perfect ken hamilton may mean sifting through those created during different time periods — you can find an early version that dates to the 20th Century and a newer variation that were made as recently as the 21st Century. On 1stDibs, the right ken hamilton is waiting for you and the choices span a range of colors that includes black, beige, brown and purple. A ken hamilton from Mark Schiff, George Deem and Jim Shaw — each of whom created distinctive versions of this kind of work — is worth considering. Artworks like these — often created in oil paint, paint and canvas — can elevate any room of your home. A large ken hamilton can be an attractive addition to some spaces, while smaller examples are available — approximately spanning 15 high and 18 wide — and may be better suited to a more modest living area.

How Much is a Ken Hamilton?

The average selling price for a ken hamilton we offer is $1,705, while they’re typically $700 on the low end and $24,257 for the highest priced.

A Close Look at Realist Art

Realist art attempts to portray its subject matter without artifice. Similar to naturalism, authentic realist paintings and prints see an integration of true-to-life colors, meticulous detail and linear perspectives for accurate portrayals of the world. 

Work that involves illusionistic techniques of realism dates back to the classical world, such as the deceptive trompe l’oeil used since ancient Greece. Art like this became especially popular in the 17th century when Dutch artists like Evert Collier painted objects that appeared real enough to touch. Realism as an artistic movement, however, usually refers to 19th-century French realist artists such as Honoré Daumier exploring social and political issues in biting lithographic prints, while the likes of Gustave Courbet and Jean-François Millet painting people — particularly the working class — with all their imperfections, navigating everyday urban life. This was a response to the dominant academic art tradition that favored grand paintings of myth and history. 

By the turn of the 20th century, European artists, such as the Pre-Raphaelites, were experimenting with nearly photographic realism in their work, as seen in the attention to every botanical attribute of the flowers surrounding the drowned Ophelia painted by English artist John Everett Millais.

Although abstraction was the guiding style of 20th-century art, the realism trend in American modern art endured in Edward Hopper, Andrew Wyeth and other artists’ depictions of the complexities of the human experience. In the late 1960s, Photorealism emerged with artists like Chuck Close and Richard Estes giving their paintings the precision of a frame of film.

Contemporary artists such as Jordan Casteel, LaToya Ruby Frazier and Aliza Nisenbaum are now using the unvarnished realist approach for honest representations of people and their worlds. Alongside traditional mediums, technology such as virtual reality, artificial intelligence and immersive installations are helping artists create new sensations of realism in art.

​​Find authentic realist paintings, sculptures, prints and more art on 1stDibs.

Finding the Right Portrait-paintings for You

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.