Portrait Painting for Sale
Save your search and find it in your favorites
Save your search to find it quickly
Saved search
Your search is accessible from the favorites tab > My favorite searches
Unsaved search
A problem occurred
The Space Between - Viridian V1
Sophie Derrick
Painting - 150 x 100 x 5 cm Painting - 59.1 x 39.4 x 2 inch
€8,015
La nef des fous
Cédric Marachian
Painting - 97 x 146 x 2 cm Painting - 38.2 x 57.5 x 0.8 inch
€2,500
Le soleil est dans tes yeux - I
Leona Rose
Painting - 130 x 103 cm Painting - 51.2 x 40.6 inch
€3,500
1995 Portrait
Bernard Di Sciullo
Painting - 70 x 50 x 0.5 cm Painting - 27.6 x 19.7 x 0.2 inch
€1,150
Cause Toujours
Agathe Lemaire Thalazac
Painting - 146 x 149 x 2 cm Painting - 57.5 x 58.7 x 0.8 inch
€18,000
The thing about this place
Ngahina Belton-Bodsworth
Painting - 64 x 53 x 3 cm Painting - 25.2 x 20.9 x 1.2 inch
€2,080
The Centre Cannot Hold
Syndi Kahn
Painting - 90 x 81 x 3.5 cm Painting - 35.4 x 31.9 x 1.4 inch
€3,962
Portrait of a personality
Alexander Lazarkov
Painting - 60 x 50 x 2.3 cm Painting - 23.6 x 19.7 x 0.9 inch
€1,230
Young woman with earrings
Claudia Talavera
Painting - 145 x 110 x 2.5 cm Painting - 57.1 x 43.3 x 1 inch
€4,330
Désintégration (La princesse aux petits pois)
Céline Achour
Painting - 100 x 73 x 2 cm Painting - 39.4 x 28.7 x 0.8 inch
€1,600
This is Tinuola
Adeniyi Joshua Adetayo
Painting - 101.6 x 80 x 2.5 cm Painting - 40 x 31.5 x 1 inch
€2,484
Förhållandet i en dröm
Mathias Szabo
Painting - 63 x 63 x 2 cm Painting - 24.8 x 24.8 x 0.8 inch
€561
Oris 4 (série de 40 têtes)
Kevin-Ademola Sangosanya
Painting - 49 x 33 cm Painting - 19.3 x 13 inch
€1,500
Silent Scream
Mihai Alexandru Haita
Painting - 80 x 60 x 3 cm Painting - 31.5 x 23.6 x 1.2 inch
€1,930
Boucle et lys
Meriame Louattani
Painting - 65 x 50 x 1.5 cm Painting - 25.6 x 19.7 x 0.6 inch
€1,250
Waiting
Oniosun Victoria Erioluwa
Painting - 91.4 x 76.2 x 2.5 cm Painting - 36 x 30 x 1 inch
€2,096
Prélude 3 - série corps de femme
Luco
Painting - 100 x 80 x 2 cm Painting - 39.4 x 31.5 x 0.8 inch
€1,320
Rich imagination
Sergey Bondarev
Painting - 145 x 100 x 3 cm Painting - 57.1 x 39.4 x 1.2 inch
€25,000 €22,500
God is a Negro 1
Ashola'sa Daniel
Painting - 91.4 x 91.4 x 2.5 cm Painting - 36 x 36 x 1 inch
€1,746
N°1314 - in the town
Mehdi Dashti
Painting - 186 x 145 x 5 cm Painting - 73.2 x 57.1 x 2 inch
€6,000
I.A 1 - Intelligence Artificielle
Carole Aurore
Painting - 55 x 46 x 2 cm Painting - 21.7 x 18.1 x 0.8 inch
€1,125
Autoportrait - Introduce myself
Gris1
Painting - 100 x 100 x 4 cm Painting - 39.4 x 39.4 x 1.6 inch
€6,500
Sun-Rays Dreams
Paul Insect
Painting - 170.9 x 131.1 x 3.6 cm Painting - 67.3 x 51.6 x 1.4 inch
€25,709
Majestic beach Lov in Blue P2017 1033
Aldema Design & Art
Painting - 200 x 140 x 3 cm Painting - 78.7 x 55.1 x 1.2 inch
€4,800
R E C Y C L É - ZB-021019
Arseneca
Painting - 146 x 110 x 0.5 cm Painting - 57.5 x 43.3 x 0.2 inch
€890
Benjami
Stephen Irving (Zero Gradient)
Painting - 76.2 x 50.8 x 5.1 cm Painting - 30 x 20 x 2 inch
€3,007
Ventre de Paris
Mikhail Chemiakine
Painting - 30 x 24 x 0.1 cm Painting - 11.8 x 9.4 x 0 inch
€2,200
1969 Paris Orange Paris Le Barbu Man with a beard
Jochen Michaelis
Painting - 37.5 x 52.5 x 0.5 cm Painting - 14.8 x 20.7 x 0.2 inch
€1,950
MIYUKI 5 : MISTY PURPLE WHISPERS AND KAWAII TEMPTATION
Aya Toshikawa
Painting - 60 x 60 x 5 cm Painting - 23.6 x 23.6 x 2 inch
€2,100
La touareg du Sahara
Ellis Zbinden
Painting - 50 x 42 x 0.1 cm Painting - 19.7 x 16.5 x 0 inch
€3,000 €2,400
Le vieux Korodouga 1
Amadou Opa Bathily
Painting - 118 x 130 x 5 cm Painting - 46.5 x 51.2 x 2 inch
€3,800
Mar de nuestros Ancestros
Delia Montanha
Painting - 30 x 26 x 1 cm Painting - 11.8 x 10.2 x 0.4 inch
€600
Look at the sky turned a hell fire red
Model Rice
Painting - 35 x 27 x 2 cm Painting - 13.8 x 10.6 x 0.8 inch
€500
Bye Bye Blackbirdds
Paula Montgomery
Painting - 121.9 x 91.4 x 2 cm Painting - 48 x 36 x 0.8 inch
€3,007
Original 73 face portrait
Eugen Dick
Painting - 100.1 x 100.1 x 4.6 cm Painting - 39.4 x 39.4 x 1.8 inch
€2,522
Le grand départ
Benoît Montet
Painting - 59.9 x 39.9 x 2.8 cm Painting - 23.6 x 15.7 x 1.1 inch
€2,320
Discover the styles & movements
Discover the selection of our experts
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.
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.
A portrait can be created in various different art styles and forms, including sculpture, painting and drawing.
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.