Portrait Commissions
I accept a limited number of commissions each year — portraits of adults, children, families, and the occasional beloved animal. The work is painted slowly, in the classical atelier tradition: extended observation, true measurement, paint applied in disciplined layers. Each portrait is a record of a particular person at a particular moment, made to last generations.
What I Paint
Portrait commissions in oil or charcoal. Adults and children, individually or in family groupings. Memorial and posthumous portraits, painted from photographic references. Institutional and corporate portraits — boards of directors, university presidents, judges, retiring executives, major donors. The occasional dog or horse when the right project comes along.
Each portrait is sized and composed to suit the subject and the room it's intended for.
The Process
1. Inquiry and consultation. Reach out with what you have in mind. We discuss subject, size, setting, and intended use. If it's a good fit on both sides, I send a proposal with a fixed price and timeline.
2. Reference and planning. For life-sitting portraits, we schedule sittings at my Brooklyn studio. For portraits painted from photographic references, I'll work from existing photographs or arrange a dedicated portrait shoot.
3. Painting. The work proceeds over weeks to months depending on scale and complexity. I share progress images at appropriate stages so there are no surprises at the end.
4. Delivery. The finished portrait is varnished, framed (if framing is included in the commission), and delivered or shipped.
Sittings vs. Photographic Reference
Life-sitting portraits are the tradition I trained in, and they tend to produce the most resonant results — they capture the actual presence of a person in a way photographs alone cannot. Sittings typically run two to three hours each, scheduled over several weeks.
For subjects who cannot sit — deceased subjects, children too young to sit reliably, sitters too far from New York to travel — I work from photographs and reference material. The result is excellent. But a portrait from life will always carry something a portrait from photographs cannot.
Timeline
From signed commission to finished painting:
Head-and-shoulders: 8 to 16 weeks
Half-length: 4 to 8 months
Three-quarter or full-length, single figure: 6 to 12 months
Multi-figure or large-scale: 9 months and up
Pieces painted from photographic reference can move more quickly when the schedule requires it.
Investment
Commission prices are based on size, complexity, number of figures, and whether the work is painted from life or photographs. Each commission receives a fixed-price proposal after the initial consultation. Framing and shipping are quoted separately.
Each commission is priced after the initial consultation, based on size, complexity, and reference. Approximate range: $3,500–$50,000+.
Inquire
If you're considering a portrait commission, please reach out with as much detail as you have — subject, intended setting, occasion if any, any timeline you're working against. I respond to every inquiry within two business days.
info@chriseastlandartist.com · (917) 378-5890