Commissioned Art,
Not Copies.
Most custom portrait services do one thing: they copy your photograph as faithfully as they can. That is a real skill, and Sébastien Rieu does it too. But there is a second craft, and it is a different job entirely — starting from the real and making something that did not exist before. All art starts from the real. The question is whether it stops there.
Portrait or creation?
Both are made by hand, both start from your photograph, both are signed. They are simply not the same purchase, and they should not cost the same.
| The faithful portrait | The creation | |
|---|---|---|
| What you buy | A likeness. The person, the pet or the car rendered as they are, recognisable at a glance. | An artwork. Your subject reinterpreted through the artist’s own language: cubist facets, pin-up codes, a monochrome decision, a jungle borrowed from Rousseau. |
| The brief | “Make it look like him.” | “Make something of him I could never have imagined.” |
| Medium | Indian ink and watercolour, or graphite pencil, on art paper | Acrylic on Canson paper or on canvas, sometimes with coloured pencil |
| Price | From €120 pencil portraits from €120 · paintings from €200 · cars and houses quoted on request |
From €450 on Canson paper · from €850 on canvas |
| Where to go | The Original Art page → | The gallery below → |
One hand, one point of view
Cinema, pin-up and cubism: each of these began with a real image and ended up somewhere else. Acrylic on paper or canvas, painted in Bordeaux. Click a painting to see it up close.
A film still turned into a pin-up: the pose is borrowed from the photograph, everything else — the palette, the framing, the flat background — is a decision the painter made and the camera never suggested.
More paintings are hanging in the pin-up gallery, and the drawings that stay faithful to the photograph live on the Original Art page.
How it works
Your photograph — a person, a car, a face from a film still — plus anything that matters: a colour, a memory, a mood.
Cubist facets, pin-up codes, monochrome, a borrowed setting. Or leave it open and let the painter propose.
A small preparatory drawing comes first. Nothing goes on the final sheet before you have seen where it is heading.
Acrylic on Canson paper from €450, on canvas from €850. Signed, posted from France in about two weeks, tracked.
Before you commission
What is the difference between a portrait and a creation?
A portrait aims at likeness: the person, pet or car rendered as they are, recognisable at a glance, from €120 on the Original Art page. A creation starts from the same photograph but reinterprets it through the artist’s own visual language — cubist planes, pin-up codes, a monochrome decision. You are buying a point of view rather than a resemblance, and creations by Sébastien Rieu start at €450.
Why does a creation cost more than a portrait?
Because copying is one skill and inventing is another. A creation involves preparatory studies, colour decisions and days of painting during which nothing guarantees the result in advance. The cubist pin-up called “Amanda” sold the day after it was finished, which is a market price rather than an estimate.
Can you paint a cubist portrait of a real person from our photo?
Yes, and that is exactly what this page is for. Send the photograph and the face is rebuilt in coloured planes while staying unmistakably that person. It works particularly well for milestone birthdays and anniversaries, where a literal copy of an old photograph tends to fall flat.
Is any of this made with AI?
No. Every painting on this page is acrylic on physical paper or canvas, painted by hand by Sébastien Rieu, a French artist of 25 years who was filmed at his drawing table by France 3 national television. No AI, no filter, no digital manipulation at any stage, and progress photos of your own commission are available on request.
How does the painting reach me in the UK?
The finished painting is signed, photographed for you, then posted flat and tracked from Bordeaux. Allow about two weeks from the moment the work is completed, and rather longer overall for a commission, since the painting itself takes days of work.
Are the paintings in this gallery for sale?
Some are still available as originals and others have already sold. Ask about a particular piece on the contact page, and note that any of them can also be reproduced as an art print.
All art starts from the real.
The question is whether it stops there. Tell Sébastien what you would like made, and how far you would like him to take it.
Commission a creation →