portrait

sit for a/(one's) portrait

To pose while having one's portrait painted or photographed. It's tradition that every new president of the company has to sit for a portrait, which is hung in the main foyer of the building. With so many kids, it's always something of a nightmare trying to get everyone to sit for a family portrait each year.
See also: portrait, sit
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms.

sit for one's portrait

to serve as the subject of a portrait being done by a painter or photographer. I sat for the picture for two hours. Do you mind sitting for the painter all day? It will be easier if you get it over with all at once.
See also: portrait, sit
McGraw-Hill Dictionary of American Idioms and Phrasal Verbs.
See also:
  • sit for a/(one's) portrait
  • pose for
  • pose for (someone or something)
  • get the (dead) needle
  • get the needle
  • strike a pose
  • strike a pose/an attitude
  • strike an attitude
  • the sow that eats her farrow
  • the sow that eats its farrow
References in classic literature
Grandfather bade him draw the table nearer to the fireside; and they looked over the portraits together, while Clara and Charley likewise lent their attention.
The book likewise contained portraits of James Otis and Josiah Quincy.
After these observations, Grandfather drew the book of portraits towards him and showed the children several British peers and members of Parliament who had exerted themselves either for or against the rights of America.
Philip was not satisfied with his portrait, and at the end of a sitting he nearly always scraped out what he had done.
It's when I saw the Grecos that I felt one could get something more out of portraits than we knew before."
He longed to solve the mystery of something in the face Nastasia Philipovna, something which had struck him as he looked at the portrait for the first time; the impression had not left him.
The prince gazed at it for a minute or two, then glanced around him, and hurriedly raised the portrait to his lips.
Epanchin examined the portrait of Nastasia Philipovna for some little while, holding it critically at arm's length.
And still, the darker it grew, the more persistently my portrait led me back to the past, the more vividly the long-lost image of the child Mary showed itself to me in my thoughts.
The effect produced on me by the sight of my portrait was in itself due to moral and mental changes in me for the better, which had been steadily proceeding since the time when my wound had laid me helpless among strangers in a strange land.
'Yes it is, Mr Nickleby,' said Miss La Creevy, with a very sprightly air, 'and between you and me and the post, sir, it will be a very nice portrait too, though I say it who am the painter.'
All those beautiful shiny portraits of gentlemen in black velvet waistcoats, with their fists doubled up on round tables, or marble slabs, are serious, you know; and all the ladies who are playing with little parasols, or little dogs, or little children--it's the same rule in art, only varying the objects--are smirking.
'Character portraits, oh yes--they're not real military men, you know.'
Twemlow, in a stunned condition, feigns to compare the portrait in his hand with the original looking towards him from his Mephistophelean corner.
For the moment, Mrs Lammle does not turn to them, but remains looking at Twemlow looking at Alfred's portrait through his eyeglass.