The 20 most popular oil painting reproductions, and what each one costs to copy well

The list, in order

Twenty paintings account for most of what reproduction studios actually paint. The order below is editorial, not a sales chart. Five stores' own popularity and bestseller pages were read on 2026-09-05 and cross-referenced painting by painting, and the rank table further down prints what each list actually says; the order here is then set by how near the top a painting sits across those lists and by how much a buyer has to know before ordering it. Two entries appear on none of the five and are here for the questions they raise: the Great Wave, which is not a painting, and Nighthawks, which is not out of copyright. Each entry gives the museum, the original size in centimetres, the specific reason the picture is hard to copy, the price, and the mistake cheap copies make most often.

1. 1.The Starry Night, Vincent van Gogh, 1889
2. 2.The Kiss, Gustav Klimt, 1907–08
3. 3.Water Lilies, Claude Monet, 1897–1926
4. 4.Girl with a Pearl Earring, Johannes Vermeer, c. 1665
5. 5.Cafe Terrace at Night, Vincent van Gogh, 1888
6. 6.Sunflowers, Vincent van Gogh, 1888–89
7. 7.Mona Lisa, Leonardo da Vinci, c. 1503–1519
8. 8.The Great Wave off Kanagawa, Katsushika Hokusai, c. 1830–32
9. 9.Almond Blossom, Vincent van Gogh, 1890
10. 10.Impression, Sunrise, Claude Monet, 1872
11. 11.The Birth of Venus, Sandro Botticelli, c. 1485
12. 12.Wanderer above the Sea of Fog, Caspar David Friedrich, c. 1818
13. 13.The Scream, Edvard Munch, 1893
14. 14.Nighthawks, Edward Hopper, 1942
15. 15.The Last Supper, Leonardo da Vinci, 1495–98
16. 16.Irises, Vincent van Gogh, 1889
17. 17.Poppy Field, Claude Monet, 1873
18. 18.The Milkmaid, Johannes Vermeer, c. 1660
19. 19.Dance at Bougival, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, 1883
20. 20.The Creation of Adam, Michelangelo, c. 1508–12

How this list was picked

No store publishes its order data, so the only honest method is to read what each one puts on its own popularity page and look for agreement. Seven lists were read on 2026-09-05. Six of them are in the table below: five are usable as rankings and one only partly. The seventh, PaintingStar's, is not a bestseller list at all, and what it is instead is described under the table.

The twenty paintings, one by one

1. The Starry Night

Museum of Modern Art, New York. 73.7 × 92.1 cm. It is first on three of the five ranked lists and second on a fourth. Hard because the swirls are built from separate loaded strokes laid in one direction, wet into wet, with bare canvas showing between them in the darks; the ridges stand proud of the surface and take several sittings to build. The cheap-copy tell is a flat blue sky with white swirl lines drawn on top, which reverses the order the paint went on. Prices run $99 at overstockArt to $1,116.87 at TOPofART, which sells only the original's dimensions. Art & See lists it from $299.95. Full detail: The Starry Night reproduction.

2. The Kiss

Belvedere, Vienna, inv. 912, 180 × 180 cm. The museum's object record lists gold leaf, silver leaf, platinum leaf and oil-resin paints on primed canvas in the figural area, and a background of Schlagmetall (base-metal leaf in brass) overpainted with glazes and strewn with metal-leaf flakes; the record is in German and that is a translation of it. The Belvedere's essay on the painting adds that the metal underlay dictated the composition, because Klimt had to plan it around the boundaries of the metal-primed areas before painting. Hard because metal reflects and paint does not: no yellow pigment produces the shift you see as you walk past. The cheap-copy tell is a single flat gold covering both robes and background. Art & See lists it on its square ladder, $249.95 to $549.95. Full detail: The Kiss reproduction.

3. Water Lilies

The Art Institute of Chicago puts the series at around 250 paintings, worked on from the late 1890s until Monet's death in 1926; the 1906 version in Chicago is 89.9 × 94.1 cm. Hard because there is no horizon, no bank and no object at a known size, so a copyist has no landmark to check against, and because the originals were built over months in several dried campaigns. The tell is an added strip of green at the top: a bank, which Monet spent twenty years removing. Art & See lists a Water Lilies from $249.95. Full detail: Water Lilies reproduction.

4. Girl with a Pearl Earring

Mauritshuis, The Hague. 44.5 × 39 cm, one of the smallest famous paintings in circulation. Hard because nothing in it has a contour: the pearl is a highlight and a dim reflection with no sphere between them, and every edge is a change of tone made wet into wet. The tell is a pearl painted as an object, with an outline and a specular dot. Art & See lists it from $249.95 at 16 × 16 in, which is about the size of the original. Full detail: Girl with a Pearl Earring reproduction.

5. Cafe Terrace at Night

Kroller-Muller Museum, Otterlo. 80.7 × 65.3 cm. It is first on the 1st Art Gallery ranking and second on HandmadePiece's best-selling page. Hard because Van Gogh used no black: every dark is a saturated blue or violet, and the awning runs through three yellows. The tell is a black outline around the awning and the window frames. overstockArt sells it from $109 at 8 × 10 in, rising to $349 at 36 × 48 in. Full detail: Cafe Terrace at Night reproduction.

6. Sunflowers

Seven versions in all on the National Gallery's count, four painted in August 1888 and three repetitions in January 1889, of which five are on public display; the London version is 92.1 × 73 cm and the Amsterdam repetition 95 × 73 cm. Hard because the whole picture is yellow on yellow, separated only by temperature and value, and because some of Van Gogh's chrome yellows have darkened over time, so the museum canvas is no longer the colour he mixed. The tell is brown outlining around every petal. Across the stores surveyed the subject ran $99 to $678; Art & See does not carry the Arles vase series under that title, and its Van Gogh collection starts at $249.95. Full detail: Sunflowers reproduction.

7. Mona Lisa

Musee du Louvre, Paris. 79.4 × 53.4 cm on a poplar panel, not canvas. Hard for two reasons the store listings never mention: sfumato is built from many thin glazes that each need drying time, and the Louvre states that oxidised varnish applied after Leonardo's death now works as a yellow filter that has turned the sky's blue to green. Copying the photograph copies the varnish. The tell is a brown picture with hard edges at the mouth. Art & See lists it from $299.95 at 20 × 16 in; across the stores surveyed the subject ran roughly $150 to $700. Full detail: Mona Lisa reproduction.

8. The Great Wave off Kanagawa

It is not a painting. The Metropolitan Museum of Art records it as a woodblock print, ink and colour on paper, 24.4 × 35.7 cm. The British Museum's Capucine Korenberg, who catalogued the surviving impressions, estimates as many as 8,000 may have been printed before the blocks wore out and has identified 113 that survive. Stores sell hand-painted oil versions anyway, and that is legitimate as long as the listing does not claim the original was an oil painting. Hard because flat printed colour and a key line of constant weight are the opposite of what oil paint wants to do. No store surveyed sells it cheap because it is a print: hand-painted canvases ran roughly $150 to $600, and Art & See's catalogue does not list it at all. The cheap-copy tell is added brushiness where the source is flat. Full detail: The Great Wave reproduction.

9. Almond Blossom

Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam. 73.3 × 92.4 cm, painted for the birth of his nephew. Hard because three quarters of the canvas is one flat turquoise field: there is no texture to hide an uneven passage, and the branch contours are drawn once with a loaded brush. The tell is a mottled sky, lighter at the corners. overstockArt sells it from $109 at 8 × 10 in and Art & See from $299.95 at 20 × 16 in. Full detail: Almond Blossom reproduction.

10. Impression, Sunrise

Musee Marmottan Monet, Paris. 50 × 65 cm, thinly painted in one campaign. Hard because the sun works by hue rather than brightness: sampled on the Commons file used here, Monet - Impression, Sunrise.jpg, it measures about 121 in Rec. 709 luminance against 128 to 134 for the mist around it, so it is fractionally darker than its background. The tell is a brightened sun that detaches from the mist. overstockArt listed it at $199 and Art & See from $299.95. Full detail: Impression, Sunrise reproduction.

11. The Birth of Venus

Uffizi, Florence. 172.5 × 278.5 cm, and it is tempera on canvas, not oil: the paint is bound in egg, which dries matt and fast and gives the flesh its chalky finish. Hard because of that medium and because the picture is nearly three metres wide, so any reproduction at 48 in is at about one third scale, where the fine hatching in the hair and the gold heightening cannot be reproduced. Reproduction Gallery's listing at this title is the Cabanel Birth of Venus, a different painting entirely. TOPofART prices its oil reproduction at $8,742, by far the highest figure in this list, which is what nearly three metres of tempera-scale canvas costs; Art & See's Birth of Venus is the Cabanel, from $299.95. The cheap-copy tell is a Venus with modern, even flesh and no hatching. Full detail: The Birth of Venus reproduction.

12. Wanderer above the Sea of Fog

Hamburger Kunsthalle, Hamburg. 94.8 × 74.8 cm. Third on the TOPofART ranking, twenty-fourth at 1st Art Gallery. The easiest of the top twenty to copy competently: thin, even paint, few impasto passages, a limited grey-green palette. The tell is not technique but value, because the fog is a narrow band of close greys and copyists tend to open it up for contrast, which flattens the distance. TOPofART prices it at $1,084; Art & See lists it from $299.95. Full detail: Wanderer above the Sea of Fog reproduction.

13. The Scream

National Museum of Norway, Oslo. 91 × 73.5 cm, and like The Great Wave it is not an oil painting: the 1893 version is tempera and crayon on unprimed cardboard, with the board showing through in places. An oil-on-canvas version changes both the medium and the support. The tell is a version painted glossy and fully covered, where the original is matt and deliberately unfinished in places. TOPofART prices it at $776 and Art & See lists it from $299.95. Full detail: The Scream reproduction.

14. Nighthawks

Art Institute of Chicago. Oil on canvas, 84.1 × 152.4 cm, painted in 1942. This is the one painting on the list that is not free to reproduce. Edward Hopper died in 1967, so in jurisdictions using a life-plus-70 term protection runs to the end of 2037 and the work enters the public domain on 1 January 2038. In the United States a work published in 1942 with notice and renewed runs 95 years from publication, which also expires at the end of 2037. A hand-painted copy for sale needs a licence from the rights holder, and studios that list it without one are taking a risk on the buyer's behalf. There is no honest price band, because the licence, not the canvas, is the cost. The cheap-copy tell here is the listing itself: a store selling it with no licence named. Full detail: Nighthawks reproduction.

15. The Last Supper

Santa Maria delle Grazie, Milan. 460 × 880 cm on a refectory wall, painted in tempera and oil on dry plaster rather than in true fresco, which is why it began deteriorating within Leonardo's lifetime. Hard on every axis: the scale is architectural, the surviving surface is a heavily restored ruin, and a copyist has to decide whether to paint the wall as it is or as it was. The tell is a bright, clean version that looks like a modern illustration. Expect $300 to $700 for a canvas at wall sizes; Art & See's Last Supper is the El Greco, not the Leonardo. Full detail: The Last Supper reproduction.

16. Irises

J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles. 74.3 × 94.3 cm. Sixth on TOPofART, tenth and eleventh on the two HandmadePiece lists. Hard because of the drawing. The Getty's own text reads: "Each one of Van Gogh's irises is unique. He carefully studied their movements and shapes to create a variety of curved silhouettes bounded by wavy, twisting, and curling lines." Those lines are drawn once, with a loaded brush. The tell is a bed of repeated identical blooms, which is what a copyist produces when the drawing is traced rather than observed. TOPofART prices it at $1,846, the highest of the Van Goghs here; overstockArt sells it in its best-seller range and Art & See lists it from $299.95. Full detail: Irises reproduction.

17. Poppy Field

Musee d'Orsay, Paris. 50 × 65 cm, the same small format as Impression, Sunrise. Easy to copy adequately and hard to copy well: the poppies are single dabs of unmixed red on a field of greens that has to stay varied without becoming busy. The tell is poppies painted as an even scatter of identical dots, where in the original they cluster at the top of the slope and thin out downhill. Reproduction Gallery listed Poppy Fields 1873 at $299 and Art & See sells Wild Poppies, near Argenteuil from $299.95. Full detail: Poppy Field reproduction.

18. The Milkmaid

Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam. 45.5 × 41 cm, almost exactly the size of Girl with a Pearl Earring. Hard because of the pointille highlights: the bread, the basket and the rim of the jug are covered in small raised dots of light-coloured paint that read as glare, and there is no fast way to imitate them. The tell is bread painted as a textured brown mass. Art & See lists it on the square ladder from $249.95. Full detail: The Milkmaid reproduction.

19. Dance at Bougival

Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. 181.9 × 98.1 cm, so the figures are close to life size and the format is a tall 1.85:1 that no stock canvas matches. Hard because Renoir's flesh painting is built from thin, blended, closely valued strokes that turn chalky the moment a copyist adds white for speed. The tell is a red bonnet that has become the brightest thing in the picture. Expect $300 to $700 at wall sizes, and a custom quote if you want the 1.85:1 proportion; Art & See does not carry it. Full detail: Dance at Bougival reproduction.

20. The Creation of Adam

Sistine Chapel, Vatican City. About 280 × 570 cm, and it is a fresco: pigment in water painted into wet lime plaster, on a curved ceiling, designed to be seen from twenty metres below. None of that transfers to a stretched canvas at eye level. Hard in the way a translation is hard rather than in the way a copy is: the figures were drawn for foreshortening from below. The tell is a version with modern, saturated flesh tones and a flat background where the original has plaster. Expect $300 to $700 for a canvas crop of the panel; no store surveyed sells the ceiling section at anything like its real size. Full detail: The Creation of Adam reproduction.

All twenty, side by side

Hardest to reproduce, ranked

Difficulty here is not a judgement about the art. It is a practical estimate of how much a studio has to get right before the copy stops being recognisable as the painting. Four things push a picture up the scale: a surface that is itself the subject, a material that is not oil paint, a format over about 150 cm, and a heavy drift between what the artist mixed and what the canvas looks like now.

• Five out of five. The Kiss, the Mona Lisa, The Last Supper and The Creation of Adam. Metal leaf, layered glazes, a ruined wall and a curved ceiling: none of these can be matched on stretched canvas by any studio at any price, only approximated.
• Four out of five. The Starry Night, Girl with a Pearl Earring, Sunflowers, The Birth of Venus, The Milkmaid. Achievable, but the failure modes are specific and visible, and the cheapest tier of work fails them reliably.
• Three out of five. Water Lilies, Irises, The Scream, Cafe Terrace at Night, Impression, Sunrise, Almond Blossom, Dance at Bougival. A competent copyist gets these right with time and a clear brief.
• Two out of five. Wanderer above the Sea of Fog, Poppy Field, The Great Wave, Nighthawks. Flat, even, thinly painted or printed originals, where the risk is a legal one or a colour one rather than a technical one.

Which of these look best large

Enlargement is not neutral. A picture whose marks are large to begin with grows comfortably; a picture built at arm's length from small, soft transitions is asked to supply detail that was never there, and the copyist invents it. Before ordering anything over 36 in, check which group the painting is in.

Where to buy any of the twenty

Frequently asked questions

Sources

1. 1.Top 100 Most Famous Paintings, ranked listing — HandmadePiece. Accessed September 5, 2026.
2. 2.100 Most Famous Paintings, best-selling reproductions — HandmadePiece. Accessed September 5, 2026.
3. 3.500 Most Popular Paintings, the ranked list — 1st Art Gallery. Accessed September 5, 2026.
4. 4.Popular Oil Painting Reproductions (carries the 'well over 300,000 orders over more than 20 years' claim) — 1st Art Gallery. Accessed September 5, 2026.
5. 5.Best Selling Art Reproduction Oil Paintings — overstockArt. Accessed September 5, 2026.
6. 6.Top 100 Masterpieces, with museum and oil price per painting — TOPofART. Accessed September 5, 2026.
7. 7.Popular Oil Paintings on Canvas — Reproduction Gallery. Accessed September 5, 2026.
8. 8.Best Sellers in Oil Paintings and Art Prints — PaintingStar. Accessed September 5, 2026.
9. 9.Gustav Klimt, Der Kuss (Liebespaar), inv. 912 — object record and essay (in German) — Belvedere, Vienna. Accessed September 5, 2026.
10. 10.The making and evolution of Hokusai's Great Wave (impressions printed and surviving) — Capucine Korenberg, The British Museum. Accessed September 5, 2026.
11. 11.Sunflowers, 1888 — collection record and the count of versions — The National Gallery, London. Accessed September 5, 2026.
12. 12.The Milkmaid, SK-A-2344, dated c. 1660 — Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam. Accessed September 5, 2026.
13. 13.The Birth of Venus, tempera on canvas, 172.5 x 278.5 cm — Gallerie degli Uffizi. Accessed September 5, 2026.
14. 14.Nighthawks, collection record and public-domain status — Art Institute of Chicago. Accessed September 5, 2026.
15. 15.Under the Wave off Kanagawa, collection record — The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Accessed September 5, 2026.
16. 16.Portrait de Lisa Gherardini, dite Monna Lisa, INV 779, with condition notes — Musee du Louvre. Accessed September 5, 2026.
17. 17.Irises, 1889, collection record — J. Paul Getty Museum. Accessed September 5, 2026.
18. 18.Why did Gustav Klimt use gold? — Belvedere, Vienna. Accessed September 5, 2026.
19. 19.How long does copyright protection last? — United States Copyright Office. Accessed September 5, 2026.