Portrait Painting for Sale
Save your search and find it in your favorites
Saved search
Your search is accessible from the favorites tab > My favorite searches
Unsaved search
A problem occurred
Gare du Nord
Pierre-François Grimaldi
Painting - 80 x 80 x 4 cm Painting - 31.5 x 31.5 x 1.6 inch
$7,215
La fille aux cheveux noirs
Ada Kafel
Painting - 60 x 60 x 2 cm Painting - 23.6 x 23.6 x 0.8 inch
$1,776
Porto fino
Dimitris Pavlopoulos
Painting - 104.1 x 99.1 x 4.6 cm Painting - 41 x 39 x 1.8 inch
$2,000
La mariee au petit pont
Raya Sorkine
Painting - 146 x 114 x 2 cm Painting - 57.5 x 44.9 x 0.8 inch
$27,749
Tchin tchin
Martine Fauve Dechavanne
Painting - 81 x 60 x 1 cm Painting - 31.9 x 23.6 x 0.4 inch
$2,442
Portrait du peintre
Raya Sorkine
Painting - 46 x 55 x 2 cm Painting - 18.1 x 21.7 x 0.8 inch
$10,545
La jeune fille d'Honfleur
Ladamenrouge
Painting - 70 x 60 x 5 cm Painting - 27.6 x 23.6 x 2 inch
$1,887
The latent desire
Artush Voskanyan
Painting - 80 x 60 x 2 cm Painting - 31.5 x 23.6 x 0.8 inch
$3,500
El retiro de Greta Lovisa Gustafsson
Javier Artica
Painting - 70 x 50 x 1.5 cm Painting - 27.6 x 19.7 x 0.6 inch
$1,776
A cuerpo plantado
Javier Artica
Painting - 69.5 x 50 x 1.5 cm Painting - 27.4 x 19.7 x 0.6 inch
$1,776
Revenir
François-Xavier de Boissoudy
Painting - 57 x 42 x 3 cm Painting - 22.4 x 16.5 x 1.2 inch
$1,332
Liberty (Song of Freedom)
Oluwafemi Akanmu
Painting - 71.1 x 91.4 x 2.5 cm Painting - 28 x 36 x 1 inch
$2,100
Out Of the Vacuum And Into The Void
Danny O'Connor
Painting - 101.6 x 76.2 cm Painting - 40 x 30 inch
$4,029
Light reflection. Sun.
Ljubow Jung
Painting - 70 x 50 x 2 cm Painting - 27.6 x 19.7 x 0.8 inch
$1,143
Christ Descente de Croix par les âmes COLLECTION LUBJANA MUSEUM COLLECTION
Joze Ciuha
Painting - 213 x 273 cm Painting - 83.9 x 107.5 inch
$43,289
Barack Obama and a comic who has ice cream on his head
Jose Ricardo Contreras Gonzalez
Painting - 50 x 40 x 0.3 cm Painting - 19.7 x 15.7 x 0.1 inch
$1,000
George W. Bush gifts Jay Leno a portrait of Jay Leno
Jose Ricardo Contreras Gonzalez
Painting - 50 x 40 x 0.3 cm Painting - 19.7 x 15.7 x 0.1 inch
$1,000
Cenizas y diamantes XVII
Cecilia Méndez Casariego
Painting - 45 x 33 x 0.3 cm Painting - 17.7 x 13 x 0.1 inch
$600
JOLIE SIMPLICITE D'AILLEURS
Sophie Petetin
Painting - 65 x 55 x 2.5 cm Painting - 25.6 x 21.7 x 1 inch
$1,104
Toutes sur la photo
Maxime Frairot
Painting - 90 x 30 x 4 cm Painting - 35.4 x 11.8 x 1.6 inch
$1,046
Un couple au fond blanc
Raya Sorkine
Painting - 100 x 50 x 2 cm Painting - 39.4 x 19.7 x 0.8 inch
$10,878
Queen Elizabeth II X Love
Dane Shue
Painting - 61 x 61 x 1.3 cm Painting - 24 x 24 x 0.5 inch
$1,200
Sans titre (Trainspoting X Shoot The Bank, 2011)
JP Malot
Painting - 60 x 120 x 3 cm Painting - 23.6 x 47.2 x 1.2 inch
$2,220
Discover the styles & movements
Discover the selection of our experts
Serie Terra Retrato en fondo beige
Enrique Pichardo
Painting - 70 x 70 x 1 cm Painting - 27.6 x 27.6 x 0.4 inch
$959
The tree of life
Seyran Gasparyan
Painting - 50 x 60 x 2 cm Painting - 19.7 x 23.6 x 0.8 inch
$1,200
Portrait #2. From the Portraits series
Luigi Christopher Veggetti Kanku
Painting - 30 x 20.8 x 0.3 cm Painting - 11.8 x 8.2 x 0.1 inch
$1,200
Circus Acrobats
Joanna Zakrzewska-Cholewa
Sculpture - 49 x 15 x 6 cm Sculpture - 19.3 x 5.9 x 2.4 inch
$1,775
Portrait Painting for Sale
Portraiture is one of the most important subjects in painting. The discipline has changed significantly over time and has a fascinating history.
In antiquity, portraits were exclusively reserved for gods and the most influential people in society. Paintings and statues representing the bodies of the deceased were erected to decorate tombs in Egypt. They weren't realistic but rather had a very standardized way of representing each part of the body.
In contrast to the Egyptians, painters and sculptors in Greece, who had a more in depth knowledge of the human anatomy, were more concerned about realism. Many portrait paintings from this period were done on vases and depicted gods and mythological scenes.
In the Middle Ages, most portraits paintings were commissioned and featuring the most important people of the time; they were painted into religious scenes to emphasize their piety and faith, along with their social status. Once these works of art had been painted, they were often donated to churches and monasteries.
The Renaissance marked a renewal for the arts and portrait painting was no exception. At the beginning of this period, artists were unconcerned about lifelike, realistic work. Sitters or the subjects represented were identifiable through the use of symbolic objects and the inclusion of their name.
Giotto revolutionized portraiture by imitating sculpture. He began to paint shadows, the subjects' expressions, effects of depth and began to use foreshortening. His knowledge soon began to spread.
Brunelleschi then introduced the idea of perspective in architecture, a concept which Masaccio adapted to painting. Italy became the center of portrait painting and the most important Italian families (including the Médici family) commissioned artwork by the best painters. Competition between these painters led them to innovate and led them to produce some of the greatest artworks in history. The most famous is undoubtedly the Mona Lisa by Leonardo de Vinci.
In Northern Europe during the 16th century, Flemish art was restricted by iconoclasm during the Reformation, a period during the depiction of religious figures was banned. Artists turned to courtly art which was particularly popular during the following centuries. A century earlier, Flemish art had marked a turning point with Jan Van Eyck, the inventor of oil painting (the preferred painting technique of Renaissance painters) and master of detailed realism, who influenced an entire generation of Flemish painters.
Over the following centuries, portrait painting continued to be an art form for the elite of society, but painters grew increasingly concerned about depicting realistic figures and communicating the sitter's inner world and emotions. The 20th century saw a growing trend: subjects were not painted to look beautiful (sometimes to their great dismay).
At the end of the 19th century, Impressionist painters became less reliant on sculpted models and sculpture's influence. They left their studios and painted portraits outside, “en plein air." They captured the light as they saw it and painted groups of people together rather than in in several stages.
Modern and contemporary art of the 20th century saw anything go when it came to portraits. Artists like Gustav Klimt, Pablo Picasso, Paul Gauguin and Lucien Freud turned traditional techniques and codified rules on their heads and developed their own unique styles.
Discover portraits by Philippe Pasqua, Robert Combas, Guangyu Dai and Erró on Artsper.
What is meant by portrait painting?
A portrait painting is a painted artwork that depicts a person. A portrait painting usually depicts the upper body of a sitter, for example from the shoulders up.
What art style is a portrait?
A portrait can be created in various different art styles and forms, including sculpture, painting and drawing.
What makes a good portrait?
A portrait can be considered a good work of art for a variety of reasons, including its handling of light, tone and color, its likeness to the person it represents, or its expression of emotion.