Royal pet portraits
Your pet, painted as a royal portrait
A hand-painted oil portrait of your dog or cat in the costume and setting of a seventeenth-century court painting — velvet, ermine, a dim palace behind them. Painted in real oil, not printed, not filtered.
The joke works because the painting is serious. A phone snapshot of a beagle becomes an oil painting with a velvet cloak, a gold chain and the flat, unhurried gaze of a Habsburg nobleman — and the reason it lands is that someone spent weeks painting it properly. Printed versions of this idea are everywhere and cost $40. They read as a poster at three feet. An oil painting does not.
We are a studio in Dafen, Shenzhen — the painting village that has supplied galleries and hotels for thirty years. Our painters copy Velázquez and Van Dyck for a living, so putting your cat's face into that language is not a novelty filter for us; it is the work we already do, pointed at a different subject.
What the costume actually is
Every royal pet portrait is a small composition problem, not a costume swap. The head comes from your photograph; the body, drapery and background are painted to fit that head — the angle of the neck, the way the light falls on the fur, the direction the eyes are looking. A head pasted onto a copied costume looks wrong instantly, and that is the difference between a painting people keep on the wall and one they laugh at once and put in a drawer.
You choose the direction: Renaissance court, Georgian military, a genuine seventeenth-century Dutch burgher, or plain classical — dark background, no costume at all, which is what most customers over fifty actually order. We send the mock-up first; if the costume looks like a costume rather than clothing, we redraw it before any paint is mixed.
If you have a costume in mind — a specific painting, a family tartan, a military uniform your pet's human wore — say so when you send the photo. Period accuracy is where the painters enjoy themselves, and it costs nothing extra.
The photograph this needs
The best source is a photo taken at the pet's eye level, sitting or standing square to the camera, with the whole head and both ears visible and no hand or leash across the face. Flash flattens fur, so window light is better. A slightly turned head is fine — more interesting, in fact — but both eyes need to be visible.
Cats are harder than dogs: most phone photos are taken from above, which shortens the muzzle and hides the chest we need for the cloak. If all you have is a top-down shot, send three or four and we will composite the head from one and the posture from another. Combining two photographs is $60–$70 and is quoted before we start.
Pets who have died are a large part of this work, and the photo is often old, soft-focus or scanned from a print. Send it anyway — restoration is part of the same quote, and a soft photo is a better starting point than no photo.
Size, price and how long it takes
A royal portrait is usually hung as a single statement picture, so most customers go bigger than they would for a plain pet portrait: 16 × 20 in ($389) is the entry point that still reads as a portrait, and 20 × 24 in ($549) or 24 × 36 in ($789) is where the costume and background actually have room to work.
Painting takes three to five weeks, then three to five business days in transit, rolled in a rigid tube and insured. Express is three weeks including painting, +$90. Nothing is charged until you approve the mock-up, and you get two progress photographs while it is on the easel — that is when to say the collar is wrong, not after it ships.
One canvas, one animal, is the price in the table below. Two pets in court dress on one canvas is a two-subject commission, priced in the second column.
What it costs
Price is set by canvas size and the number of subjects — not by the occasion, the deadline, or how much detail you ask for. The table below is the same one used on every painting page, so there is no quote to wait for.
| Canvas | Metric | 1 subject | 2 subjects | 3 subjects | 4+ subjects |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 8 × 10 in | 20 × 25 cm | $189 | $259 | — | — |
| 12 × 16 in | 30 × 41 cm | $289 | $379 | $459 | — |
| 16 × 20 in | 41 × 51 cm | $389 | $499 | $619 | $749 |
| 20 × 24 in | 51 × 61 cm | $549 | $699 | $849 | $1,029 |
| 24 × 36 in | 61 × 91 cm | $789 | $1,059 | $1,290 | $1,560 |
| 30 × 40 in | 76 × 102 cm | $1,090 | $1,449 | $1,749 | $2,090 |
| 36 × 48 in | 91 × 122 cm | $1,390 | $1,849 | $2,249 | $2,690 |
Shipping is free worldwide. Framing is optional and quoted separately — most customers have the canvas stretched by a local framer for $60–$120.
How it works
Send the photograph
One sharp phone photo is enough. Tell us the deadline, the wall it is going on, and anything that must or must not be in the picture.
See the mock-up within 24 hours
A digital composite at the exact canvas size and crop, so size and composition are settled before any paint is bought. Nothing is charged until you approve it.
Watch it being painted
Three to five weeks in real oil, with two progress photographs. You can raise a concern at either one — that is what they are for.
Approve, then it ships
You see the finished canvas first, with one free round of adjustments. Then it travels rolled in a rigid tube, tracked and insured, with the numbered certificate inside.
Real oil, not a print
Hand-painted on cotton canvas, varnished, signed. Brushwork you can see in raking light.
You approve before we paint
A digital mock-up at the exact size and crop, within 24 hours, included in the price.
Numbered certificate
Every painting ships with a signed COA stating artist, medium, size and year.
Free worldwide shipping
Rolled in a rigid tube, tracked and insured. No minimum, no distance surcharge.
Questions
Questions we actually get
Send the photograph, get a mock-up
One photo and the date you need it. Within 24 hours you will see your pet in costume at the exact canvas size — before anything is charged.