Portrait Paintings
17th Century Old Masters Portrait Paintings
Oil
21st Century and Contemporary Portrait Paintings
Canvas, Oil, Board
2010s Realist Portrait Paintings
Oil, Board
1970s Impressionist Portrait Paintings
Oil
2010s American Realist Portrait Paintings
Oil
Artist Comments
A young boy lies sprawled on a couch, fully absorbed in a comic book. His relaxed pose conveys a sense of calm and quiet. The scene captures the simple pleasure...
21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Portrait Paintings
Acrylic
1960s Post-Impressionist Portrait Paintings
Oil
2010s Realist Portrait Paintings
Silver, Gold Leaf
1890s Realist Portrait Paintings
Mahogany, Oil, Wood Panel
1980s Impressionist Portrait Paintings
Oil, Canvas
1830s Portrait Paintings
Oil
21st Century and Contemporary Expressionist Portrait Paintings
Canvas, Acrylic
18th Century Rococo Portrait Paintings
Oil
2010s Realist Portrait Paintings
Oil, Panel
Early 19th Century English School Portrait Paintings
Oil, Canvas
19th Century French School Portrait Paintings
Oil
Mid-17th Century Baroque Portrait Paintings
Oil, Glass
21st Century and Contemporary Expressionist Portrait Paintings
Canvas, Oil
Early 19th Century Rococo Portrait Paintings
Oil
1680s Old Masters Portrait Paintings
Oil
21st Century and Contemporary Realist Portrait Paintings
Canvas, Oil
Artist Comments
A man in a suit holds a woman as she leans back. The limited palette helps the viewer to take in the scene quickly and emotionally. Her teal dress creates a nea...
21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Portrait Paintings
Oil
1860s Impressionist Portrait Paintings
Oil
Mid-20th Century Impressionist Portrait Paintings
Oil
1830s Victorian Portrait Paintings
Oil
1970s Modern Portrait Paintings
Oil, Board
1950s Modern Portrait Paintings
Oil, Board
Early 17th Century Baroque Portrait Paintings
Oil, Canvas
17th Century Old Masters Portrait Paintings
Oil, Laid Paper
19th Century Victorian Portrait Paintings
Oil
Mid-19th Century Portrait Paintings
Oil
Late 19th Century French School Portrait Paintings
Oil
16th Century Old Masters Portrait Paintings
Oil, Wood Panel
21st Century and Contemporary Expressionist Portrait Paintings
Canvas, Oil, Acrylic
2010s Neo-Expressionist Portrait Paintings
Permanent Marker
Early 2000s Contemporary Portrait Paintings
Cotton Canvas, Oil
21st Century and Contemporary Impressionist Portrait Paintings
Oil, Canvas
Late 18th Century Old Masters Portrait Paintings
Canvas, Oil, Board
2010s Realist Portrait Paintings
Cotton Canvas, Acrylic
1830s English School Portrait Paintings
Oil
21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Portrait Paintings
Canvas, Oil, Acrylic
1890s Victorian Portrait Paintings
Oil, Board
2010s Contemporary Portrait Paintings
Canvas, Oil
18th Century Old Masters Portrait Paintings
Oil
21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Portrait Paintings
Canvas, Oil
Early 19th Century Realist Portrait Paintings
Oil, Canvas
Mid-19th Century Portrait Paintings
Oil
21st Century and Contemporary Expressionist Portrait Paintings
Canvas, Acrylic
1920s Portrait Paintings
Oil
Late 20th Century French School Portrait Paintings
Oil
2010s Modern Portrait Paintings
Offset
1930s Post-Impressionist Portrait Paintings
Oil
Mid-20th Century Impressionist Portrait Paintings
Oil
Mid-20th Century Impressionist Portrait Paintings
Oil
21st Century and Contemporary Expressionist Portrait Paintings
Linen, Oil
Early 1900s Tonalist Portrait Paintings
Ink, Oil, Acrylic
2010s Pop Art Portrait Paintings
Wood, Spray Paint, Acrylic
1780s Old Masters Portrait Paintings
Oil
Late 18th Century Old Masters Portrait Paintings
Oil, Wood Panel
20th Century Portrait Paintings
Acrylic
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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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.





