18th Century Family Portrait

Surely you’ll find the exact 18th century family portrait you’re seeking on 1stDibs — we’ve got a vast assortment for sale. You can easily find an example made in the contemporary style, while we also have 30 contemporary versions to choose from as well. You’re likely to find the perfect 18th century family portrait among the distinctive items we have available, which includes versions made as long ago as the 18th Century as well as those made as recently as the 21st Century. If you’re looking to add a 18th century family portrait to create new energy in an otherwise neutral space in your home, you can find a work on 1stDibs that features elements of black, brown, gray, silver and more. There have been many interesting 18th century family portrait examples over the years, but those made by Don Pollack, Nathaniel Currier, John Dobbs, Johann Berthelsen and Dong Kingman are often thought to be among the most thought-provoking. Artworks like these — often created in paint, oil paint and fabric — can elevate any room of your home. A large 18th century family portrait can be an attractive addition to some spaces, while smaller examples are available — approximately spanning 5.25 high and 4.5 wide — and may be better suited to a more modest living area.

The price for a 18th century family portrait in our collection starts at $97 and tops out at $1,495,000 with the average selling for $7,407.

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.