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Small Antique Paintings

About this collection

A small antique painting is not a small work. The cabinet picture was the format in which a painter worked closest to the eye, on panel, on copper or on a fine canvas, and it was valued accordingly in its own time.

These small paintings run from the 17th century to the first years of the 20th and cross every subject, from Old Master panels and court portraits to landscapes, dog portraits and devotional scenes. Many are signed. Many keep their period frames, and several hang well together on a single wall.

Portrait of Emperor Joseph II, 19th century Austrian School oil on canvas, in a gilt frame

Austrian School, 19th century

Emperor Joseph II, 1800s
$2,900
Signed Barbizon heather landscape by James Desvarreux, purple moor in bloom, carved silvered frame

James Desvarreux-Larpenteur (1847-1937)

Heather in Bloom
$2,900Signed
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
$4,900Signed
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
$1,900

Guides · before you buy

Emperors, Officers and the Symbols They WoreA double-headed eagle, a golden ram on a ribbon, a white coat.Read the guideHaystacks in French Painting, Before and After MonetSixty years of French haystacks before Monet made them the whole picture, and the difference between a sheaf and a stack.Read the guide
A young woman in a pink silk gown reaching to a rose on a garden terrace, a servant with a basket of flowers at the right and a spaniel at her feet, in a carved gilt frame

Louis Lassalle (1810-1870)

Young Woman Gathering Roses
$5,785Signed
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
$5,700Signed
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
$2,900
Signed heather path landscape by James Desvarreux, a sand track climbing between banks of flowering heather toward blue hills, late 19th century oil in a period gilt frame

James Desvarreux-Larpenteur (1847-1937)

Heather Path in Bloom
$2,700Signed
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
$8,900
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
$3,200
Five stooks of cut wheat in a stubble field under a clouded summer sky, a dark treeline behind, in a carved gilt and black frame (Gaston Bonfils)

Gaston Bonfils (1855-1946)

Sheaves in a Harvest Field
$2,400Signed
Antique French Barbizon landscape with haystacks signed and dated 1882, oil on wood panel in a gilded carved frame

Eugène Forest (1808-1891)

Haystacks Landscape, 1880s
$2,600Signed
Antique penitent Magdalene in a cave with an open book and a skull, oil in a moulded gilt frame

Dutch School, early 18th century

Penitent Magdalene, 1700s
$3,800
Antique 17th century oil on wood panel, Christ and the Samaritan woman at the well, in period gilt frame

Flemish School, 17th century

The Samaritan Woman, 1600s
$5,800
Two King Charles spaniels in a dark landscape, 18th century French oil on panel in an ebonized frame

French School, 18th century

Two King Charles Spaniels, 1700s
$6,900
Two roses in lilac and cream on vellum, a 19th century French botanical study in a moulded gilt frame

French School, 19th century

White and Purple Roses, 1800s
$5,600
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
$2,900
Signed Victor Philipsen view of Vesuvius from the Bay of Naples, oil on wood panel, 19th century French school, in a moulded gilt frame

Victor Philippe Philipsen (1841-1907)

Vesuvius from the Bay of Naples
$3,800Signed
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
$2,700
Signed Adolphe-Félix Cals landscape of sheaves in a stubble field, oil on canvas, 19th century French school, in a gilt frame with flower corners

Adolphe-Félix Cals (1810-1880)

Haystacks in a Stubble Field
$8,900Signed
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
$2,600
Five putti with music books and oboes in a landscape, late 17th century Flemish oil on panel, in a gilded frame

Flemish School, late 17th century

Concert of Putti, late 1600s
$4,800
SoldAntique 17th century Flemish oil on copper, the penitent Mary Magdalene, in ripple moulded frame

Flemish School, 17th century

Penitent Magdalene, 1600sSold
Signed oil by Léon Printemps of the 1900 Paris Exposition Universelle pavilions, gilt frame

Léon Printemps (1871-1945)

Paris Exposition of 1900
$1,900Signed

GalerieClub Fine Art

1,100+

paintings sold since 2017

Poppy Fields, late 1800sSold Poppy Fields, late 1800s Hagar and Ishmael, 1700sSold Hagar and Ishmael, 1700s Penitent Magdalene, 1600sSold Penitent Magdalene, 1600s

Our promise

  • Every painting photographed front and back
  • The frame you see is the frame that ships
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New paintings, by email

A note when new paintings come in. Nothing else.

Elsewhere in the gallery

Small antique paintings for sale at GalerieClub

Size never measured importance. The collectors of the 17th century kept their best pictures close, and painters answered with small antique oil paintings finished to be studied at arm's length. This collection carries that tradition from the Baroque to the early 20th century, with many small French works and small portraits gathered in their own collection of small antique portrait paintings.

  • A cabinet was a room, not a piece of furniture. Wealthy collectors of the 17th century gave the name to the small private chamber where they kept their finest paintings, and an antique cabinet picture is a work sized for that room. The smoothest supports suited it best. Oak panel takes a thin paint layer without the grain of canvas, and a painting on copper holds detail almost like enamel. Small religious scenes and Flemish and Dutch panels belong to this tradition, and the joins and battens on the back of a panel often help to date it.

  • A landscape painter outdoors needed something he could carry. In the 19th century many painters worked on small panels and canvases directly in front of the motif, and a small antique landscape painting of heath, harvest field or coast often keeps the speed and freshness of that first session. Some were finished later in the studio. Others were left as the painter brought them home, signed on the spot.

  • Dogs sat for portraits too. Owners of the 18th and 19th centuries commissioned likenesses of a favourite spaniel or a new puppy at the same intimate scale as a family portrait, and a small antique dog oil painting was usually made for the house, not for exhibition. The breed, the collar and the cushion often say more about the household than about the dog.

  • On a small work every stroke shows. A signature in a lower corner, sometimes with a date, places the painting in its painter's career, and unsigned works are described by school and period, as our guide to reading an attribution explains. A wide gilt frame does real work on a small painting. It draws the eye inward and gives a modest canvas the presence of a much larger 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.