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 beauty of dance XII
Serghei Ghetiu
Painting - 80 x 49 x 2 cm Painting - 31.5 x 19.3 x 0.8 inch
€1,700
Jungles of the Mind
Roxana Khonkulova
Painting - 90 x 80 x 2 cm Painting - 35.4 x 31.5 x 0.8 inch
€800
Je suis le roi du monde !
Jean-Philippe Berger
Painting - 100 x 50 x 3 cm Painting - 39.4 x 19.7 x 1.2 inch
Sold
Colorful Reflections
Seyran Gasparyan
Painting - 75 x 55 x 1 cm Painting - 29.5 x 21.7 x 0.4 inch
€719
Radiant Marilyn Monroe
Liana Ohanyan
Painting - 80 x 60 x 2 cm Painting - 31.5 x 23.6 x 0.8 inch
€719
Portrait in Blue and Red
Ihar Barkhatkou
Painting - 105 x 70 x 3 cm Painting - 41.3 x 27.6 x 1.2 inch
€2,000
Enchanting Elegance
Samson Adetunji
Painting - 76.2 x 76.2 x 2.5 cm Painting - 30 x 30 x 1 inch
€2,157
Future is Equal HPM 2/6
Shepard Fairey (Obey)
Painting - 61 x 46 cm Painting - 24 x 18.1 inch
€7,900
Ecce homo (2) (after pina bausch) forbidden collage (16)
Julien Delagrange
Painting - 40 x 30 x 0.1 cm Painting - 15.7 x 11.8 x 0 inch
€1,800
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
€1,151
L'envole I - préchauffage
Patricia Dubois
Painting - 93 x 70 x 3.5 cm Painting - 36.6 x 27.6 x 1.4 inch
€2,200
My Kid Just Ruined My Basquiat (graf) on canvas
Ziegler T
Painting - 70 x 50 x 2 cm Painting - 27.6 x 19.7 x 0.8 inch
€900
Bonjour Printemps
Alice de Miramon
Painting - 59 x 45 x 0.5 cm Painting - 23.2 x 17.7 x 0.2 inch
€1,400
Hommage à Camille Claudel
Duytter
Painting - 100 x 100 x 1.5 cm Painting - 39.4 x 39.4 x 0.6 inch
€5,900
Epicycle - série portrait onirique et surréalisme
Samuel Boudaud
Painting - 70 x 50 x 2 cm Painting - 27.6 x 19.7 x 0.8 inch
€2,125
Masculine Elegance (Beauty Within Us)
Fasalejo Tobiloba
Painting - 61 x 50.8 x 2.5 cm Painting - 24 x 20 x 1 inch
€1,294
Self-Worth 2
Hezekiah Oyejide Obidare
Painting - 121.9 x 91.4 x 5.1 cm Painting - 48 x 36 x 2 inch
€3,116
There must have been an angel by my side
Ritchelly Oliveira
Painting - 65 x 54 x 3 cm Painting - 25.6 x 21.3 x 1.2 inch
€7,300
Soulmates, Spring serie
Olha Vlasova
Painting - 60 x 60 x 2 cm Painting - 23.6 x 23.6 x 0.8 inch
€1,000
La Cage De Lamentables Harmonies
Sandra Chevrier
Painting - 96.52 x 50.8 x 2.54 cm Painting - 38 x 20 x 1 inch
€23,971
Cocoon of Comfort, The Joy Series: A Journey to Inner Happiness original artwork
Tetiana Pchelnykova
Painting - 90 x 100 x 2 cm Painting - 35.4 x 39.4 x 0.8 inch
€1,220
It's not you, it's not me either
Rahma Lhoussig
Painting - 90 x 100 x 5 cm Painting - 35.4 x 39.4 x 2 inch
€3,800
La sieste - Nap in a 70's room
Léa Dedieu
Painting - 100 x 80 x 2 cm Painting - 39.4 x 31.5 x 0.8 inch
€1,800
Maman Monument Vivant
Enfant Précoce / Francis Essoua Kalu
Painting - 70 x 70 x 2 cm Painting - 27.6 x 27.6 x 0.8 inch
€6,000
Ballerina no. 1, Series XXIII
Mario Henrique
Painting - 40 x 30 x 0.1 cm Painting - 15.7 x 11.8 x 0 inch
€650
Oh my God, or a Custom Portrait
Nataliya Bagatskaya
Painting - 100 x 70 x 2.3 cm Painting - 39.4 x 27.6 x 0.9 inch
€2,500
Little dancing queen
DB Waterman
Painting - 99.8 x 69.9 x 2 cm Painting - 39.3 x 27.5 x 0.8 inch
€2,809
Ulimi wako mkuwba una faa kuenda kuenye ma shindano
George Lilanga
Painting - 61 x 61 x 1 cm Painting - 24 x 24 x 0.4 inch
€790
Colorful woman portrait
Elena Lukina
Painting - 60 x 50 x 2 cm Painting - 23.6 x 19.7 x 0.8 inch
€1,100
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.