Oil Portrait Commissions
Boston · New England
Why Commission an Oil Portrait?
In an age of fleeting digital images, the painted portrait endures as one of the most profound expressions of human connection. To commission a portrait is to honor not only a likeness, but a life.
This art form has been cherished within the long tradition of New England portraiture — from John Singleton Copley to Sargent and the Boston School. Jonathan Sherman continues in that lineage, painting to reveal a sitter’s inner qualities, as well as their physical ones.
Such works become part of a family’s story. They speak to heritage, to gratitude, to the wish that beauty and meaning endure. Whether for a family home, a university, or a company honoring its founders, the painted portrait remains what it has always been: a lasting symbol of esteem, and of the human desire to be known.
The Artist’s Lineage
Jonathan Sherman’s portraiture is rooted in the sight-size method, a philosophy of seeing, as well as a technique whereby the sitter and canvas are placed side by side at a fixed distance, allowing the eye to perceive the whole objectively. Rather than focusing on detail alone, the artist steps back, seeing the picture in full scale. Sight-size was used by masters such as Van Dyck, Reynolds, Sargent, and Titian, and was preserved in the Boston atelier lineage of R. H. Ives Gammell and his protégés.
Sherman’s own influences reach back to Leonardo’s expression of the natural world and higher truths, Michelangelo’s devotion to form and proportion, and Rembrandt’s psychological intimacy.
In painting a portrait, a painter must convey not only the likeness, but the spirit of an individual. The sight-size method allows the artist to omit what is unnecessary and reveal what is essential.
Jonathan Sherman trained at the Charles H. Cecil Studios in Florence, a direct continuation of the atelier tradition of R. H. Ives Gammell and the Boston School.
Jonathan Sherman’s oil paintings, drawings, and sculptures are housed in private and corporate collections throughout Europe, Australia, and the United States. Eleven of his works of Art are in the private collection of Eijk and Rose-Marie van Otterloo, and he was commissioned to create six bronze sculptures for the corporate collection of Maddox & Partners in Naples, Florida. In addition to completing over 40 commissions, Jonathan’s works of Art have been part of solo and group exhibitions throughout the United States and abroad, including The Crane Estate in Ipswich, Massachusetts; The Edwards Art Gallery in Plymouth, New Hampshire; and Lo Studio dei Pittori in Florence, Italy. He was most recently awarded the 2026 Mass Cultural Council Grant for Creative Individuals.
About the Artist
Artist Statement
My works of Art are created from a very deep love for human beings and the human experience. Depth of beauty, harmony, spiritual richness, and energetic radiance are common elements throughout all of my work. By utilizing the language of Nature: light, shadow, depth, form, shape, proportion, color, and texture which allow us all to perceive the physical world, I am able to fix on canvas, paper, in stone or bronze timeless truths and wisdom pertaining to the ever present loving relationship between human and spirit. I use this language because everyone living in the natural world throughout all eras has familiarity and fluency with it. The works of Art are all composed to soothe the body, nourish the intellect, and uplift the spirit. Preparing my materials by hand ensures sound craftsmanship, enabling them to endure for centuries or millennia for future generations to benefit from. - Jonathan Sherman
Begin the Conversation
A commissioned portrait is a collaboration — an exchange between a patron, sitter and the artist that results in a lasting work of Art. Jonathan Sherman accepts a limited number of commissions each year to ensure the highest level of attention and craft.