Custom Renoir Style Grandparents Portrait from Your Photos

Your grandparents on one canvas, painted by hand in oil from the photographs your family has kept: a wedding print, a holiday snapshot, a recent birthday.

Prints that have faded

Photograph the print flat, by a window, out of its frame glass. Creases and spots need not reach the painting. A face the photograph does not show cannot be invented, so if an eye or a mouth is lost in a fold, send another picture of the same person.

If every photograph is black and white, name the colours you know: her eyes, his hair before it went white, the cardigan she always wore. Where nobody remembers, colours are chosen to suit the decade, and the approval photographs let you check them before dispatch.

How the two sat together

Say how they usually sat: side by side on the sofa, she in the armchair and he standing behind, on a garden bench. A detail such as his hand on her shoulder can decide the whole composition. If your photographs come from different decades, say which age to show.

An older face in Renoir’s hand

In 1860 Renoir painted his mother, Marguerite, then 53. Portrait of Renoir’s Mother is an unfinished oil that has been called unusually honest next to his later work. That frankness is the model for older faces here: lines stay, because the family recognises them.

For a pair, the catalogue holds Monsieur et Madame Bernheim de Villers, a husband and wife painted together.

Faithful, or warm

The faithful version keeps faces, clothes, proportions and setting as photographed. The Renoir version warms the colour and softens the modelling, with saturated colour in freely brushed touches, and both people stay recognisable. Either gives a contemporary commission in his manner, which is not an original Renoir.

The practical side

Two faces want a medium to large canvas. Sizes keep the shape of your main photograph, rolled, stretched on a wooden frame, or framed.

• Two people, smallest canvas, rolled, start at $262 (30 × 40 cm, rolled canvas).
• Painting takes 2 to 4 weeks.
• Photographs of the finished canvas arrive before dispatch.
• Shipping is free worldwide and tracked. Carriers: UPS or DHL.
• After dispatch, allow 5 to 7 business days.

Grandparent questions

One of them has died. Can they be painted together?

Yes. Pick the age you want for both and send the clearest photograph of each at that age. If one was only photographed young, the pair is painted at that earlier time.

Can grandchildren join them?

Yes, each counting as a figure. For a big group the family portrait page explains why one photo per person matters. All subjects are on the custom Renoir painting page.

What if it does not look like them?

Ask for corrections before dispatch, or return it after delivery. Return period: 30 days.

You can cancel your order at any time until it ships.

Request a quote for your grandparents