Choosing a painter's style for your family portrait

The single biggest creative decision in commissioning a portrait is the style. The same photograph painted in Sargent's loose, light-soaked oils looks completely different to the same photograph painted in Vermeer's still, candlelit Dutch Golden Age. Both can be stunning. They just say different things.

This guide walks through the major styles we paint in, what each one's known for, and which kinds of photographs they suit best.

Classical Realism (the safe choice)

A clean, realistic oil painting style with smooth blending, accurate likeness, and a neutral background. No "painterly" brushwork — the canvas reads almost photographic at viewing distance.

Best for: family portraits where likeness matters most, traditional homes, gifts to older relatives, memorial portraits. If you want a painting that looks like a serious oil portrait without strongly evoking any particular master, this is the safe pick.

Avoid if: you want personality and atmosphere over photographic accuracy.

John Singer Sargent

Loose, confident brushwork. Bright, clean light. Backgrounds suggested rather than rendered. Sargent is the master of "looks easy at viewing distance, falls apart up close into beautiful gestural marks." Our most-requested style for adult portraits.

Best for: photographs with strong, clean light. Adult and teenage portraits. People in white shirts or summer dresses (Sargent painted whites better than anyone). Couples.

Avoid if: your photo is in low light or you want a rendered, finished feel — Sargent's looseness can read as "unfinished" to viewers expecting a Classical Realism look.

Pierre-Auguste Renoir

Soft, warm, slightly idealised. Skin tones glow. Children and women painted in Renoir's style look romanticised in the best way. He worked light into every surface — fabrics, hair, skin all softly luminous.

Best for: children's portraits, mother-and-child compositions, soft outdoor settings, romantic couple portraits.

Avoid if: you want a tough, modern, or graphic look. Renoir is sentimental in a way some viewers find too sweet.

Johannes Vermeer (Dutch Golden Age)

Still, contemplative, candlelit. A single figure usually, painted with slow gravity. The light comes from one direction, often a window. Backgrounds are simple — a wall, a curtain, a single object.

Best for: solo portraits with quiet emotional depth — a grandmother reading, a teenager at a window, a child drawing. Memorial portraits where you want stillness rather than motion.

Avoid if: your photo is bright, colourful, or full of activity. Vermeer's stillness needs a still subject.

Gustav Klimt (Art Nouveau)

Decorative, gold-leafed, ornamental. Faces painted realistically but set into elaborate, jewel-like backgrounds and dresses. Klimt portraits don't try to be subtle — they declare themselves on the wall.

Best for: women's portraits, anniversary commissions ("The Kiss" is Klimt's most-reproduced painting for a reason), weddings, statement pieces in modern homes.

Avoid if: you want a quiet or traditional look. Klimt is gold and pattern and grandeur.

Rembrandt (Baroque)

Deep shadow, warm gold light, dramatic chiaroscuro. Faces emerge from near-black backgrounds. Rembrandt's portraits feel weighty and serious — they're the style of choice for paintings of fathers, grandfathers, military officers, dignitaries.

Best for: serious adult portraits, memorial portraits of older men, formal commissions, traditional dark interiors.

Avoid if: your photo is bright or your subject is a small child — the Rembrandt mood is wrong for joy and brightness.

Renaissance "noble portrait" (your face in 17th-century armour)

A specialty we get asked for often: paint the subject's face into the body of a 17th-century noble — armour, ruff collar, ceremonial costume. Sometimes funny, sometimes deeply serious. Pet portraits in this style (your dog as an admiral, your cat as a marchioness) have become some of our best-loved commissions.

Best for: humour, gifts, bold conversation pieces, pet portraits, people with strong personalities you want to honour playfully.

Avoid if: you want straight realism. This is a deliberately stylised style.

How to decide if you can't pick

If you genuinely can't choose, the order we'd recommend trying is:

1. Classical Realism — safest, most universally pleasing
2. Sargent — if your photo has good light and you want personality
3. Vermeer — if it's a quiet solo portrait
4. Renoir — for children and tender family scenes
5. Klimt — for statement pieces and anniversary gifts
6. Rembrandt — for serious adult/memorial portraits
7. Renaissance noble — for humour and bold gifting

Send us your photo and tell us the feeling you want. We'll tell you honestly which of these styles will paint best from that specific photograph.

Browse paintings in each style

Every painting in our catalogue is tagged by movement, so you can browse real masterworks in each style for inspiration:

• Impressionism — Renoir, Monet, Degas
• Post-Impressionism — Van Gogh, Cezanne, Gauguin
• Dutch Golden Age — Vermeer, Rembrandt, Hals
• Italian Renaissance — Botticelli, Raphael, Titian
• Baroque — Caravaggio, Rubens
• Art Nouveau — Klimt
• Realism — classical realist style

Start a commission → · use WELCOME20 for 20% off your first