David Pakter
Old Master Portraits, Inc.

Welcome; my name is David Pakter, and I am the founder of Old Master Portraits. We are an international collective of veteran painters, each with formal training in fine arts as well as human anatomy, and each with decades of experience painting in the style of the great masters. We have galleries in New York and Antwerp, and are available for travel to all continents to carry out important commissions.

We execute oil paintings in the old master style, which includes the Renaissance, Baroque and Rococco periods. We continue in the tradition of such masters as Van Dyck, Rubens, Rembrandt, Michelangelo, Valazquez, and Raphael. Our gallery operates on the Rubens Studio model; on our most critical projects, either I or Marleen Mols, my equally veteran principal partner in Belgium, will execute the portrait alone. On other commissions we delegate initial tasks to our apprentices.

Old Master Portraits specializes in 2 types of projects: (1) executing original and contemporary portraits in the old master style; and (2) creating exact replicas of existing, priceless masterpieces.

Original Oil Paintings in the Old Master Style

Old Master Portraits is commonly commissioned by institutions and individuals of means to execute timeless yet contemporary portraits in the old master style.

• The great great grandson of J. P. Morgan, when he wished to have a classic portrait executed of his legendary forbear, commissioned David Pakter of Old Master Portraits to create the work.
• The wife of a successful businessman commissioned David Pakter to create a portrait of herself, which she gave to her husband as a gift; she was dying of cancer and wished to leave her husband a timeless image to remember her by.
• An accomplished businessman from Taiwan, wishing to surprise his great Aunt on her birthday, provided David Pakter with photographs of her. He commissioned David to execute the portrait from these photos and personally present this precious gift at her residence in Taiwan.

Whether you are based in Europe, Asia, America- anywhere in the world- we can execute a timeless portrait for you. We enjoy working with live sitters, but are just as capable of carrying out projects from photographs alone.

Exact Replicas of Existing Masterpieces

Old Master Portraits is also frequently commissioned by a diverse range of clients and institutions to execute exacting replicas of existing masterpieces.

• An avid collector wished to place a rare Van Gogh she owned up for auction at Christies, but on the condition that Christies commission a gallery capable of creating a faithful replica for her that she could keep when she parted with her original; Christies contracted with David Pakter to create the replica.
• A Swiss collector, with a priceless collection, concerned with the danger and high insurance costs of keeping a work by Hieronymus Bosch in her private residence, hired Old Master Portraits to create a replica for her, allowing her to keep the original in a vault and display David Pakter's replica in her home.
• 1999, the nation of Belgium, launching the 400th Anniversary of Sir Anthony van Dyck's birth, engaged David Pakter to create a replica of the world famous altarpiece, "Saint Marten Dividing His Cloak for Two Beggars," so that the original could be loaned to the Royal Museum for inclusion in the Retrospective.
• A direct descendant of one of Sir Anthony van Dyck's sitters- Robert Rich, The Second Earl of Warwich- wished to have a replica created of a painting held by The Metropolitan Museum of Art, and hired David Pakter to create the replica.

If you require a faithful and exacting replica of an existing masterpiece, whether in your own possession or held in a museum collection, Old Master Portraits is available to meet your needs.

Contact Us

Please contact Old Master Portraits at the address below with any inquiries. When you are in New York, do call to schedule an appointment at our gallery on Park Avenue and 79th Street, located just minutes from The Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Whitney Museum and The Frick Collection.

David Pakter
Old Master Portraits, Inc.
900 Park Avenue
New York, NY 10021

by telephone: 1-212-879-7200
by e-mail: david@oldmasterportraits.com