Characteristic painting is put up near it (5)
I believe the answer is:
trait
'characteristic' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'painting is put up near it' is the wordplay.
'painting' becomes 'art' (I've seen this before).
'is put up' shows that the letters should be reversed in order.
'near' means one lot of letters go next to another.
'art' back-to-front is 'tra'.
'tra'+'it'='TRAIT'
(Other definitions for trait that I've seen before include "Feature of personality" , "Attribute, characteristic" , "Decorative band" , "Distinguishing characteristic of personality" , "Habit" .)