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Old Money Style Antique Portraits

About this collection

Old money style portraits are the dark, dignified antique portraits of the ancestral home, painted faces of gentlemen, officers and ladies that make a room look inherited rather than bought.

The look comes from age, not from subject. Deep grounds, a grave palette and period gilt frames do most of the work, at every scale from a small head painted for a private room to a portrait built to hold a wall. To see how these faces were made and dated, read our guide to collecting 18th century French portraits.

Portrait of a young Austrian officer in white uniform with the Golden Fleece, Austrian school oil on canvas, early 19th century, in a wide gilt frame

Austrian School, early 19th century

Officer with the Golden Fleece Sale price$2,700
Portrait of a Habsburg archduke in the white uniform of the Austrian army with the Golden Fleece and the Maria Theresa star, Austrian school circa 1800, in a gilt frame

Austrian School, circa 1800

Archduke in White Uniform Sale price$3,200
Portrait of a gentleman in a powdered wig, French School oil on canvas, late 18th century, sold unframed

French School, late 18th century

Gentleman in a Powdered Wig Sale price$3,300
Corchon y Diaque portrait of a woman with a wine-red silk ribbon in her hair, oil on panel in a carved giltwood frame with water leaf ornament

Corchon y Diaque (1853-1925)

Woman in a Wine-Red Silk Cap Sale price$5,700
Antique 18th century French portrait of a gentleman with a lace jabot and a pink carnation, oil on canvas in a gilt frame

French School, mid 18th century

Gentleman with a Carnation Sale price$5,800
Signed oil study by Marcellin Desboutin of a laughing boy in a working shirt, in a gilt wood frame

Marcellin Desboutin (1823-1902)

Laughing Boy Sale price$4,900
Signed 1839 French portrait of a young hunter standing with his gun and his pointing dog, oil on canvas in a period gilt frame

Charles Suan (1810-1879)

The Hunter and His Dog, 1839 Sale price$4,900
A gentleman with his gun and dog in a landscape, signed and dated 1839 by Charles Suan, oil on canvas in a period gilt frame

Charles Suan (1810-1879)

Gentleman with Gun and Dog, 1839 Sale price$4,900
Portrait of a gentleman in a red coat with a white stock and lace jabot, oil on canvas, 18th century French school, unframed

French School, 18th century

Gentleman in a Red Coat, 1700s Sale price$2,800
Young man in a dark coat and high white cravat against a grey ground, small early nineteenth century French oil portrait in its original gilt bead frame

French School, early 19th century

Young Man in a High Stock Sale price$1,900
Portrait of a hussar officer in pale blue dolman with black fur pelisse and a silver breast star, early 19th century Austrian oil on canvas in a period gilt frame

Austrian School, early 19th century

Hussar Officer in Blue, 1800s Sale price$2,900
Seventeenth century German School portrait of a man in a plain white linen collar against a black ground, oil on panel in a deep gilt frame

German School, 17th century

Man in a White Collar, 1600s Sale price$8,900
Early 19th century officer in a dark green coat with a pale blue sash and silver star, oil on canvas in a moulded gilt frame

Austrian School, early 19th century

Officer with Sash and Star Sale price$2,900
Portrait of a young woman with a pearl necklace in a pale blue gauze dress, French School, circa 1840, in a carved gilt frame

French School, circa 1840

Woman with a Pearl Necklace Sale price$5,600
Antique English portrait of a man in a tall black top hat and white stock, oil on canvas in a carved gilt frame

English School, early 19th century

Man in a Top Hat, 1800s Sale price$2,600
A man in a red coat and lace cravat under a long powdered wig, French school, in a carved gilt frame

French School, 18th century

Gentleman in a Red Coat, 1700s Sale price$4,800

Elsewhere in the gallery

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Old money style antique portraits for sale at GalerieClub

A portrait in the hall once meant the family had been there a long time. The antique dark portrait paintings in this collection were made for that purpose, painted from the 17th century to the 19th, and they still carry the gravity of a house where the same faces watched several generations.

Antique portraits on a dark background

The dark ground was a studio convention, not a mood. Portraitists laid in a brown or near-black background so that the face and the hands would catch all the light, and the practice lasted from the Baroque into the 19th century. An antique oil portrait on a dark background keeps that effect even after centuries of varnish, which often deepens the shadows further.

Ancestral and heirloom portraits

Many of these sitters were never named. An ancestral portrait passed from one generation to the next, and somewhere along the way the name was lost while the painting stayed on the wall. What survives is the dress, the pose and the rank they suggest, officers in imperial uniform, gentlemen in powdered wigs or high stocks, ladies in silk and pearls. An heirloom portrait of an unknown sitter is described by school and period, never given a family it cannot prove.

Portraits in worn and carved gilt frames

Wear is part of the look. A carved gilt frame rubbed through to the red bole at its corners, or darkened with age, belongs to the same history as the painting inside it. An antique portrait in a worn gilt frame shows that history openly, and the gilding's age is described as age, not damage.

Several of these portraits hang well together, since the look comes from a wall of faces rather than a single one. Shipping is free to the USA and Canada, packed and tracked from France. New to buying old paintings? Start with our guide to How to Collect Antique Paintings.

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