Commission a portrait: your photograph, painted in oil
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Almost every painting in this studio began with a photograph the painter found himself. A commission is the one case where somebody else chooses the image, and the only part that changes.
Can you commission an erotic portrait from a photograph?
Yes. Willem van der Krieken takes a small number of portrait commissions each year, painted in oil on stretched canvas from a photograph you supply. There are no deadlines, he decides how it gets painted, and he may say no. As a guide, originals of comparable size in this studio run from €250 to €1,600.
- A commission follows the same method as the rest of the series: oil on stretched canvas, days at a time over several weeks, signed, one of one, with a certificate of authenticity.
- The price is set per painting; a bigger canvas usually costs more, but the measurements are not a formula. The table below gives the range the existing paintings sit in, so you know roughly what you are asking about before you write.
- It ships insured from the Netherlands, in a box that carries the studio name and nothing that identifies the work.
What a commission is, and what it is not
The paintings in Painted Idols start with an image the painter found and could not put down. A commission reverses that one step: you bring the photograph. Everything after it is the same work, done the same way.
So it is worth being precise about what is being agreed.
It is: an original oil painting on stretched canvas, made once, by hand, in the studio in Boekel. Signed. One of one. Supplied with a certificate of authenticity, unframed and ready to hang, in the same way as everything on the originals page.
It is not a reproduction service. A commission is not a photograph rendered in paint, and it is not an attempt to make the canvas look like the picture you sent. The photograph is the starting point, not the specification.
It is not a service with a delivery date. There are no deadlines. Days at a time over several weeks is how the work goes, and it stops when it is finished rather than when a calendar says so.
He decides how it gets painted, and he may say no. That is the working condition, stated plainly rather than buried. A few commissions each year is what the studio takes on, which means most of the year the answer is that there is no room. If a fixed date and a signed-off sketch are what you need, a portrait studio that works to a brief will serve you better than this one.
This applies equally to the softer end of the request. A boudoir portrait painting commission is the same job under a different name: your own photograph, or one taken for you, painted as a portrait rather than as a nude. The same conditions apply to it.
The photograph you bring
The photograph does most of the work of deciding whether a painting is possible at all. Three things matter, and none of them is resolution.
Light beats sharpness. A slightly soft photograph with light that shapes the figure is worth more than a razor-sharp one lit flat from the front. Oil paint is a medium for modelling form; if the light in the source did not model anything, there is nothing to follow.
One image, not a folder. A painting comes from a single image. Sending forty pictures and asking for the best of each does not produce a better canvas, it produces a composite that belongs to nobody.
It has to hold attention. The honest test is the one in erotic art or pornography: an image that stops rewarding attention after the first look is not going to survive being painted for weeks, and it is not going to survive hanging on a wall for years either.
Rights. A commission starts from the assumption that the photograph is yours: that you own it and are free to have it painted. Nobody here asks you for paperwork and nobody checks it for you, which is precisely why the responsibility for it stays with you.
Consent. The person in the photograph has to agree as well, and that is a separate question from who owns the picture. Being free to use an image and being willing to hang as a painting on somebody's wall are two different permissions, and only the second one is the subject's to give. Without it the painting does not get made.
The bar is higher here than for the series, and deliberately so. The paintings in Painted Idols start from images the women published themselves; each canvas credits the photograph it came from, every woman is written to about it, and the page comes down if she would rather it did not. A commission starts somewhere else entirely: a private photograph, handed over by somebody who is not in it. That asymmetry is the whole reason the studio asks first instead of afterwards.
How a commission runs
Five steps, and the first one is free.
- You write, with the photograph attached. Use the contact page. Say what the image is, roughly what size canvas you have in mind, and where it would hang. Every message reaches the studio and gets an answer.
- He says yes or no. This is the step most commission pages leave out. A no is a real possible outcome and it is not a negotiation opening.
- Size and price are agreed in writing before anything is bought. The canvas determines the price; see the table below. Nothing starts until that is settled.
- It gets painted. Days at a time over several weeks. No progress feed, no approval rounds on a half-finished canvas. A painting that is being judged at every stage stops being a painting and becomes a product review.
- It is signed, documented and shipped. Certificate of authenticity, then insured shipping from the Netherlands. What that looks like on the doorstep is described in how your painting is packed and shipped.
How much does a commissioned painting cost?
There is no single number, and any studio that gives you one before it knows the size is guessing. What there is, is a range you can hold a conversation against.
Price follows the canvas. These are the actual prices of existing originals in this studio, grouped by size:
| Canvas (height × width) | What comparable originals in the series cost |
|---|---|
| 50 × 30 cm | €250 |
| 70 × 50 cm | €500 |
| 80 × 60 cm | €750-€850 |
| 100 × 80 cm | €950 |
| 100 × 100, 120 × 80 and 120 × 90 cm | €1,150-€1,300 |
| 120 × 100 cm | €1,400-€1,600 |
Those are the figures from the paintings that are for sale right now, not a quote. A commission is that figure plus 25%, for the same size, and the exact amount is agreed with you before work starts.
The surcharge is not a handling fee. A canvas from the series was painted because an image stopped the painter; a commission is painted because you asked, which means one image out of a year's small number of them goes to your photograph instead. That is what the 25% is for.
Two things the figures do not include, and it is better to know now:
- Shipping. Calculated at checkout on the catalogue works, and quoted separately on a commission. Everything ships insured from the Netherlands, worldwide.
- Import duties and VAT outside the EU. Charged by your own country, not by the studio. Original artworks often attract a reduced rate, but rules vary and it is worth a check before you commit.
If those numbers are more than you want to spend, that is a normal outcome and there is a sensible alternative: the signed prints are €35, and an original from the existing series at the lower end of the range is a real painting for the price of a piece of furniture.
Discretion: what it covers and what it cannot
A private nude portrait commission raises a question nobody asks out loud, so here is the answer without being asked.
A commission is not published. It is not listed for sale, it is not posted, and it is not used as an example, unless you say in writing that it may be. The paintings you see on this site are the studio's own series and are meant to be seen. Work made for one person is not the same object and is not treated as one.
The correspondence stays between you and the studio. It is a one-person studio and it answers its own email. There is no team, no agency and no third party reading it.
The delivery is discreet, not anonymous. The box carries a sticker with the studio name, Paintings by Willem van der Krieken, and nothing on the outside says what is inside or which work it is. Customs paperwork describes the contents as a painting or artwork, because it legally has to, and those words describe the object, not the image. The full version is in what the box actually says.
What discretion cannot do is make the painting invisible once it is on a wall. That is the real question behind most of these enquiries, and it is answered better by choosing the room well than by choosing the packaging well: where to hang a nude painting goes through it room by room.
When a commission is the wrong idea
Three cases, and saying so costs a sale now and saves a bad one later.
You need it by a date. Birthdays, anniversaries, Christmas. There are no deadlines here, and a painting hurried to hit a date is a worse painting. If there is a date, buy an existing canvas from the series: it exists already, and it ships.
You want a specific outcome. If you can already picture the finished canvas, what you want is an illustrator working to a brief, and that is a legitimate thing to want. It is not this. Here the photograph goes in and the painting comes out, and the interesting part is the distance between them.
You are buying it for someone who has not been asked. A commissioned nude of a partner is a wonderful idea roughly half the time. Who actually buys work like this is worth reading first; a painting is a twenty-year object and a surprise is a five-minute one.
Questions people ask
Can I commission a painting from my own photograph?
Yes. Willem van der Krieken takes a few portrait commissions each year, painted in oil on stretched canvas from a photograph you supply. He decides how it gets painted, there are no deadlines, and he may say no. Two things have to be true about the photograph: that it is yours to use, and that the person in it agrees to being painted. Without the second one the painting does not get made.
How much does a commissioned painting cost?
The price follows the size of the canvas: what a comparable original in the series costs, plus 25%. Existing originals run from €250 for a small canvas to €1,600 for the largest, so a commission runs from €312.50 to €2,000. The exact figure is agreed with you in writing before any work starts. Shipping is quoted separately, and import duties outside the EU are charged by your own country.
Will a commissioned portrait be shown on the website or on social media?
No, not unless you say in writing that it may be. A commission is not listed for sale, not posted and not used as an example. The work on this site is the studio's own series, which is made to be seen; a painting made for one person is a different object.
Can I return a commissioned painting?
No. A commission is made to your order, from a photograph you supplied, and that puts it outside the right of withdrawal, the same rule that applies to anything made to one person’s specification. It is the reason the process has a point where you see the work before it is finished: that is where you say something, not afterwards. Catalogue works from the shop can be returned within 14 days, in their original packaging, and if a work has been hung, the resulting loss in value is deducted from the refund.
How long does a commission take?
There is no fixed answer and no delivery date. The work goes days at a time over several weeks, and it stops when it is finished rather than on a schedule. If you need a painting by a particular date, an existing canvas from the series is the better route, because it exists already.