Paintings
One page per work: the museum, the true dimensions, the difficulty, and what a bad copy gets wrong.
Reproductions cluster around a few dozen paintings. These pages cover them individually — including the ones whose scale surprises buyers who order at 24 by 20 inches.
painting
Almond Blossom reproduction: a flat turquoise field that shows every mistake
Almond Blossom is 73.3 x 92.4 cm of flat turquoise with drawn branches. There is nowhere to hide a bad stroke. Sizes, prices, and what to check.
Updated September 5, 2026
painting
Cafe Terrace at Night reproduction: the painting with no black in it
Van Gogh painted the Arles terrace outdoors at night with no black on the palette. That is the one thing cheap copies get wrong. Sizes, prices, checks.
Updated September 5, 2026
painting
Dance at Bougival reproduction: a tall canvas no stock size fits
Renoir's Dance at Bougival is 181.9 x 98.1 cm — a 1.85:1 upright no standard canvas fits. What to order, what it costs, what copies miss.
Updated September 5, 2026
painting
Girl with a Pearl Earring reproduction: a small painting that punishes enlargement
The original is only 44.5 x 39 cm. Enlarging it forces a copyist to invent detail Vermeer never painted. Sizes, prices, and how to check the pearl.
Updated September 5, 2026
painting
Impression, Sunrise reproduction: the sun is not brighter than the sky
Measured on the Commons file, Monet's sun is slightly darker than the sky around it. Copies that brighten it break the painting. Sizes, prices, checks.
Updated September 5, 2026
painting
Irises reproduction: the painting that has already changed colour
Van Gogh's Irises is 74.3 x 94.3 cm at the Getty. The flowers were violet before the red faded. What a copy should reproduce, and what it costs.
Updated September 5, 2026
painting
Mona Lisa reproduction: you are copying the varnish, not the painting
The Louvre says oxidised varnish now filters the Mona Lisa yellow and turns its sky green. Every copy reproduces that filter. Sizes, prices, what to ask.
Updated September 5, 2026
painting
Nighthawks reproduction: the one famous painting you cannot legally have copied
Hopper's Nighthawks stays in copyright until 1 January 2038. What that means if you want one, and what the online hand-painted listings really are.
Updated September 5, 2026
painting
Poppy Field reproduction: Monet's smallest famous painting
Monet's Les Coquelicots is only 50 x 65 cm and hung at the first Impressionist show. What an oil copy gets right, what it gets wrong, and prices.
Updated September 5, 2026
painting
Sunflowers reproduction: which of the five you are buying, and why the yellow is wrong
Seven versions of Sunflowers exist, in different yellows and flower counts. Which one to order, what it costs, and why the original has faded since 1888.
Updated September 5, 2026
painting
The Birth of Venus reproduction: what to know before you buy
Botticelli's Birth of Venus is tempera on canvas, 172.5 x 278.5 cm, ratio 1.61:1. What that means for an oil copy: sizes, prices, common mistakes.
Updated September 5, 2026
painting
The Creation of Adam reproduction: turning a fresco into an oil painting
Michelangelo's Creation of Adam is a 280 x 570 cm fresco 20 m above the floor. What changes when it becomes an oil on canvas, and what a copy costs.
Updated September 5, 2026
painting
The Great Wave reproduction: it was never a painting
Hokusai's Great Wave is a 24 x 36 cm woodblock print, not an oil painting. What an oil version changes, what it should cost, and what honest sellers say.
Updated September 5, 2026
painting
The Kiss reproduction: gold leaf, square format, and what you actually get
Klimt's The Kiss is 180 x 180 cm of oil, gold leaf, silver and platinum. What a reproduction can and cannot copy, what it costs, how to check the gold.
Updated September 5, 2026
painting
The Last Supper reproduction: copying a ruined wall at one seventh scale
Leonardo's Last Supper is 460 x 880 cm of decayed wall painting, not oil on canvas. What a copy is really copying, what size to order, what it costs.
Updated September 5, 2026
painting
The Milkmaid reproduction: a 45 cm painting that punishes enlargement
Vermeer's Milkmaid is 45.5 x 41 cm at the Rijksmuseum. Its pointille highlights and empty back wall are what copies fail at. Sizes and prices.
Updated September 5, 2026
painting
The Scream reproduction: why an oil copy is an interpretation
The 1893 Scream is tempera and crayon on cardboard, 91 x 73.5 cm. An oil-on-canvas copy changes paint and surface. Sizes, prices and what to check.
Updated September 5, 2026
painting
The Starry Night reproduction: size, price and what copyists get wrong
The Starry Night is 73.7 x 92.1 cm at MoMA. What an oil reproduction costs, which size matches the original, and the mistake cheap copies make.
Updated September 5, 2026
painting
Wanderer above the Sea of Fog: a buyer's guide to the reproduction
Friedrich's Wanderer is oil on canvas, 94.8 x 74.8 cm, and one of the few famous paintings whose proportions fit a stock canvas. Sizes, prices, pitfalls.
Updated September 5, 2026
painting
Water Lilies reproduction: which one you are actually ordering
Monet painted around 250 Water Lilies. Naming the museum and the year is the difference between the picture you want and whatever the studio has on file.
Updated September 5, 2026