Portrait Paintings
Mid-18th Century Old Masters Portrait Paintings
Oil, Canvas
2010s Realist Portrait Paintings
Oil, Panel
1930s French School Portrait Paintings
Oil, Illustration Board, Monotype
18th Century Old Masters Portrait Paintings
Oil
2010s Contemporary Portrait Paintings
Canvas, Mixed Media, Gesso, Acrylic
2010s Contemporary Portrait Paintings
Canvas, Oil, Acrylic, Stretcher Bars
1840s Victorian Portrait Paintings
Canvas, Oil
18th Century Portrait Paintings
Paper, Oil
Late 18th Century Impressionist Portrait Paintings
Oil
Early 1900s Impressionist Portrait Paintings
Canvas, Oil
Artist Comments
Artist Mary Pratt paints a fashionable woman with her back gracefully turned to the viewer. She wears a long, billowing dress adorned with polka dots that mat...
21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Portrait Paintings
Oil
Early 20th Century Expressionist Portrait Paintings
Oil
Mid-19th Century Portrait Paintings
Oil
21st Century and Contemporary Realist Portrait Paintings
Canvas, Oil, Acrylic
1910s Impressionist Portrait Paintings
Canvas, Oil
21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Portrait Paintings
Canvas, Acrylic
2010s Photorealist Portrait Paintings
Oil, Panel
2010s Neo-Expressionist Portrait Paintings
Permanent Marker
1950s Modern Portrait Paintings
Watercolor, Gouache, Board
1960s American Impressionist Portrait Paintings
Oil, Fiberboard
1970s Realist Portrait Paintings
Gouache, Paper
16th Century Italian School Portrait Paintings
Oil, Wood Panel
Late 19th Century Portrait Paintings
Oil
2010s Neo-Expressionist Portrait Paintings
Permanent Marker
2010s Folk Art Portrait Paintings
Oil, Canvas
1990s Art Deco Portrait Paintings
Oil
Artist Comments
A woman sits cross-legged, peering at the city through binoculars. The scene shows a strong sense of composition and color interplay, with contrasting hues an...
21st Century and Contemporary Pop Art Portrait Paintings
Oil
19th Century Contemporary Portrait Paintings
Canvas, Oil, Acrylic
2010s Impressionist Portrait Paintings
Acrylic, Panel
1970s Modern Portrait Paintings
Paper, Watercolor
2010s Neo-Expressionist Portrait Paintings
Acrylic, Permanent Marker
2010s Byzantine Portrait Paintings
Gold Leaf
2010s Pop Art Portrait Paintings
Enamel
Late 19th Century Portrait Paintings
Oil
18th Century Portrait Paintings
Canvas, Oil
20th Century Modern Portrait Paintings
Gouache
1920s Modern Portrait Paintings
Canvas, Oil
Artist Comments
An elderly couple walks arm in arm along a misty street, their quiet closeness framed by golden autumn leaves. The fog softens the outlines of buildings and lam...
21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Portrait Paintings
Oil
2010s Impressionist Portrait Paintings
Oil
1830s Old Masters Portrait Paintings
Oil
21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Portrait Paintings
Gold Leaf
21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Portrait Paintings
Canvas, Oil
2010s Abstract Impressionist Portrait Paintings
Paper, Acrylic
Late 19th Century Portrait Paintings
Canvas, Oil
2010s Impressionist Portrait Paintings
Canvas, Acrylic
1940s Portrait Paintings
Oil, Board
2010s Street Art Portrait Paintings
Canvas, Acrylic
Late 17th Century Old Masters Portrait Paintings
Oil, Canvas
1970s Feminist Portrait Paintings
Canvas, Acrylic
1970s Feminist Portrait Paintings
Canvas, Acrylic
19th Century Portrait Paintings
Canvas, Oil
2010s Contemporary Portrait Paintings
Acrylic
2010s Impressionist Portrait Paintings
Canvas, Oil
2010s Street Art Portrait Paintings
Canvas, Acrylic
2010s Realist Portrait Paintings
Oil, Board
21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Portrait Paintings
Canvas, Oil, Acrylic
Early 1900s Tonalist Portrait Paintings
Gesso, Canvas, Oil, Stretcher Bars
1980s Pop Art Portrait Paintings
Screen, Canvas, Acrylic
1790s Old Masters Portrait Paintings
Oil
2010s Portrait Paintings
Mixed Media, Oil, Acrylic, Panel
Portrait Paintings for Sale on 1stDibs
An elegant and sophisticated decorative touch in any living space, portrait paintings have remained popular throughout the years and are widely loved pieces of art for display in many homes today.
Portrait paintings are at least as old as ancient Egypt, where realistic, lifelike depictions of the recently deceased — commonly known as “mummy portraits” — were painted on wooden panels and affixed to mummies as part of the burial tradition.
For centuries, painters have used portraiture as a means of expressing a subject’s nobility, societal status and authority. Portraits were given as gifts in Renaissance Europe, and a portrait artist might have been commissioned to help mark a significant occasion such as a wedding or a promotion to high office. Prior to the advent of photography, which eventually replaced painted portraits as a quicker and more efficient way of capturing a person’s essence, the subject of a portrait had to sit for hours until the painter had finished. And during the 18th century in particular, if an artist commissioned for a portrait struggled with how to adequately memorialize and capture a subject’s likeness, sometimes a portrait painting wasn’t completed for up to a year.
Whether it’s part of the gallery-style approach to your living-room or dining-room walls or merely inspiration as you devise an eye-grabbing color scheme in your home, a portrait painting is a timeless decorative object for any interior. A landscape painting or sculpture might give you the kind of insight into a specific region of the world or a different culture that you can ascertain only through art. Similarly, when you take the time to learn about the subject of a portrait painting that you bring into your home — the sitter’s history, the relationship between the sitter and the artist should one exist, the story of how the portrait came to be — that work can become intensely personal in addition to its place as an object for an art-hungry corner of your apartment or house.
On 1stDibs, visit a vast collection of famous portrait paintings or works by emerging artists. Search by medium to find the right portrait paintings for your home in oil paint, synthetic resin paint and more. Find portrait paintings in a variety of styles, too, including contemporary, Impressionist and Pop art, or search by artist to find unique works created by painters such as Mark Beard, Steve Kaufman and Montse Valdés.
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This Wiener Werkstätte Master Made Everything into Art
Koloman Moser smashed the conservative conventions of art and design in fin-de-siècle Vienna. On the 100th anniversary of his death, the Austrian designer is being celebrated for his radically modern creations.





