Portrait painting in European oil paint emerged in the 15th century, particularly in Northern Europe, with artists such as Jan van Eyck exploiting oil’s ability to achieve extraordinary detail and luminous flesh tones. During the Renaissance, Leonardo, Raphael and Titian made portraiture increasingly concerned with personality and status, while the 17th century brought the psychological intensity of Velázquez, Rembrandt and Van Dyck. In the 18th and 19th centuries, Reynolds, Gainsborough, Goya, Manet and Sargent gradually loosened the tradition, until artists such as Cézanne, Matisse and Picasso radically challenged naturalistic representation, transforming the portrait from a likeness of a person into an exploration of perception, form and identity.

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