Family portraits painted like the old masters: 12 ideas for every family
Van Dyck’s royal children, Renoir’s Madame Charpentier, a Dutch family making music: twelve masterworks behind Fable’s family portrait styles, and the photo each one needs.
A family portrait has always been about more than likeness. It records who belongs together, at one moment, in one room. The old masters understood that: Van Dyck arranged a king’s children with their mastiff, Renoir painted a publisher’s wife on the sofa with her small son and daughter, and Pieter de Hooch sat a Dutch family down to play music.
Each of the twelve paintings below is the masterwork behind one of Fable’s family portrait styles. Under every picture you can order the original as a print, or send a photo of your own family and see a free preview in that style. We also say which kind of photo works best, because a mother and baby and a family of five need very different pictures.
1. Portrait of a Family Playing Music
Pieter de Hooch, Portrait of a Family Playing Music, 1663. Oil on canvas. Cleveland Museum of Art.
Pieter de Hooch was the great painter of Dutch domestic light, and this family portrait, painted in 1663, is a concert at home. Music meant harmony, so the picture is also a wish for the family itself.
Best photo: the family together indoors, by a window, doing something you love doing together.
Create your portrait in this style
2. Madame Charpentier and Her Children
Auguste Renoir, Madame Charpentier and Her Children, 1878. Oil on canvas. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.
Renoir’s portrait of a publisher’s wife with her children, Georgette and Paul, was the hit of the 1879 Salon and made his name. It feels like a visit, not a sitting: the children dressed alike, Georgette perched on the family’s Newfoundland.
Best photo: a parent on a sofa with young children close by, relaxed rather than lined up.
Create your portrait in this style
3. The Five Eldest Children of Charles I
Anthony van Dyck, The Five Eldest Children of Charles I, 1637. Oil on canvas. Royal Collection.
Van Dyck painted the children of Charles I in 1637: the future Charles II in red with his hand on an enormous mastiff, his sisters in silk, and the baby on a stool. It is the grandest family portrait in British art, and the dog steals the scene.
Best photo: several children, or children with a large dog, standing in a row.
Create your portrait in this style
4. A Genoese Lady with Her Child
Anthony van Dyck, A Genoese Lady with Her Child, c. 1623–25. Oil on canvas. Cleveland Museum of Art.
In Genoa in the 1620s, Van Dyck painted the city’s richest families in full length and deep colour. Here a noblewoman shows her child, who looks at us with complete confidence.
Best photo: a mother or father holding a toddler, both facing the camera.
Create your portrait in this style
5. Elizabeth Shewell West and Her Son, Raphael
Benjamin West, Elizabeth Shewell West and Her Son, Raphael, c. 1770. Oil on canvas. Cleveland Museum of Art.
Benjamin West, the American painter who became president of the Royal Academy, painted his wife Elizabeth and their baby, Raphael, in a round format borrowed from Raphael’s Madonnas. It is formal and tender at once.
Best photo: a parent and new baby, close up, the baby wrapped in a blanket.
Create your portrait in this style
6. A Mother Feeding her Child (The Happy Mother)
Willem van Mieris, A Mother Feeding her Child (The Happy Mother), 1707. Oil on panel. Art Institute of Chicago.
Willem van Mieris painted small, polished scenes of Dutch home life. This one, The Happy Mother, is simply a meal: a mother, a spoon and a child’s upturned face.
Best photo: an everyday moment with a baby or toddler, not a posed one.
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7. A Family Meal
Evert Pieters, A Family Meal, 1890s (?). Oil on canvas. Art Institute of Chicago.
A late nineteenth century Dutch interior: a child in a highchair, a sibling watching, a parent in the background. Evert Pieters turns a family meal into something worth keeping.
Best photo: the family at the kitchen table, with the youngest in the middle.
Create your portrait in this style
8. Grandmamma's Christmas Visitors
George Adolphus Storey, Grandmamma's Christmas Visitors, 1873. Oil on canvas. Sheffield Museums.
George Adolphus Storey painted the Christmas arrival every family knows: the carriage in the snow, the children at the window, and grandmother waiting. It is the warmest picture of a family Christmas in Victorian art.
Best photo: the family outdoors in winter coats; perfect as a gift for grandparents.
Create your portrait in this style
9. The Christmas Tree
August Heinrich Niedmann, The Christmas Tree, 1874. Oil on canvas.
August Heinrich Niedmann painted two children outside a window, the glow of a Christmas tree falling on their faces. It is about longing as much as celebration, which is why it feels so true.
Best photo: two siblings side by side, in profile or looking up.
Create your portrait in this style
10. Sympathy
Briton Riviere, Sympathy, 1878. Oil on canvas.
Briton Riviere’s Sympathy shows a little girl sent to sit on the stairs, and her dog sitting faithfully beside her. It was one of the most loved pictures of the Victorian age and is still the perfect portrait of a child and her dog.
Best photo: a child sitting with the family dog, both at the same height.
Create your portrait in this style
11. Christmas Eve Charity
Ferdinand Georg Waldmüller, Christmas Eve Charity, c. 1834. Oil on panel.
Waldmüller, the great Viennese painter of country life, shows a family sharing their Christmas Eve with travellers at the door. Three generations, one room, and a lesson in generosity.
Best photo: a large family gathering indoors, with grandparents included.
Create your portrait in this style
12. Old Father Christmas
William Ewart Lockhart, Old Father Christmas, before 1900. Oil on canvas. The Hunterian, University of Glasgow.
William Ewart Lockhart painted Father Christmas as an old man in a holly crown, raising his glass. The style built from it makes a grandfather, or any beloved elder, into the spirit of the season.
Best photo: one person, seated, smiling, ideally with a beard and a glass in hand.
Create your portrait in this style
Whatever the size of your family, start with the photo you already love: everyone visible, faces in good light, nobody cut off at the edge. Pick the masterwork that feels like you, send the photo, and the preview is free.
Questions
How many people can be in a family portrait?
Most of these styles were painted for two to five people, and that is where they look best. For larger families choose a style with a wide setting, such as The Five Eldest Children of Charles I or Grandmamma’s Christmas Visitors.
Can I combine photos of family members taken separately?
One photo with everyone together gives the most natural result, because the light and scale already match. If someone is missing, a clear, front-lit photo of them can work, but a shared photo is always better.
Can the family dog be included?
Yes. Several of these masterworks already include a dog, such as Van Dyck’s royal children with their mastiff and Riviere’s Sympathy, and the styles built from them are made for pets and owners together.