Figure painting is a form of the visual arts in which the artist uses a live model as the subject matter of a two-dimensional piece of artwork using paint as the medium.

The live model can be either nude or partly or fully clothed and the painting is a representation of the full body of the model.

It is analogous in most respects to figure drawing, which is usually done in crayon, ink, pencil, watercolor or mixed media on paper.

'Figure painting' usually refers to an artist's work in progress. It is rarely, if ever, used to refer to an artist's finished work, which is usually described more specifically as a 'nude', 'portrait', or 'figure study'.

Some artists very well known for figure painting are Peter Paul Rubens, Edgar Degas, and Édouard Manet.