Art Reproduction – Your Complete Guide

In today’s market, there are many varieties of wall décor available for you to furnish your walls. Ranging from mirrors and photos to prints of images that you admire and cherish. Now, just think, instead of buying a poster or giclee print from a shop on the high street, you can actually commission  hand-painted art reproductions of scenes and landscapes of renowned paintings that you adore. Admirer of Renoir or Botticelli? Perhaps Vermeer’s ‘Girl with a Pearl Earring’ is what you find really special?! Well forget buying the print, if you’re looking for something really special, order an art reproduction of your favourite masterpiece!

Art reproduction, otherwise known as art replicas, fine art reproductions, reproduction oil paintings, art copies, are just that – they are copies of usually well-known paintings that are hand-painted by a professional artist. A lot of art reproduction companies make the claim that their art reproduction paintings are “museum quality”, without substantiating the claim. We do, but for the reason that our art reproduction paintings are actually commissioned for museums. If you’re interested to learn more, please take a look at our blog to read more about museum quality art replicas.

If you were an architect or builder you would want to build a house on a solid and strong foundation, otherwise the effects could be dire. The same goes with art. A canvas is the foundation of your painting and you need it to have certain qualities if you’re looking to commission a museum quality art reproduction or a top portrait of your family.

Nearly all of these Chinese art reproduction companies as well as the big American ones (80% of the Chinese art reproduction market ships solely to America) use flimsy nylon canvases. The reason being of course is that they’re dirt cheap to buy so companies make a bigger profit.  They may be easy on the pocket but it’s not so great for the painting. It’s important  that the canvas for your art replica or portrait has strength and stability since over time many factors can challenge your oil painting (for example  humidity, change in temperature, re-stretching) and a flimsy canvas just won’t cut it. These poor quality canvases are also loosely woven and the fabric can easily distort when stretched, which in turn will ruin the painting.

Here at Fabulous Masterpieces, we use a heavy grade duck cotton canvas because of its strength, stability and durability.  Heavy grade duck cotton canvases have a smooth, dense construction and are suitable for large oil paintings.  Our duck cotton canvases, which your paintings will be lovingly hand painted on will feel reassuringly heavy and  provide excellent support  for even thickly painted pieces of art, such as our van Gogh replicas. Even for larger paintings, due to the way the threads criss-cross each other in the canvas you’ll find that they provide an excellent foundation for your painting.  Say no to poor cheapo quality canvases and give your painting a strong foundation.  In the long run you’ll be very pleased you have!

Is a question, we’re often asked by people.  Well, the obvious clue is that the art reproduction in question will not be signed. If you commission an art reproduction of a Degas for example, the artist painting your art reproduction is not allowed to sign the painting with Edgar Degas’ signature.  That would make the art reproduction a forgery and highly illegal.

This is an interesting question. Artists have been painting fine art replicas of paintings for centuries. Art reproduction was extremely popular during the Victorian era and further back that immediately springs to mind is Pieter Brueghel’s oldest son (Pieter Brueghel the Younger 1564 -1636) painted art reproductions of his father’s work. His art replica of his father’s painting ‘Flemish Proverbs’ just sold recently at Christie’s London for £1,721,250. If you’re talking in monetary terms if art reproduction has a value, then I think it does. I’ve had quite a lot of auction houses phone me up asking me to commission replicas of artists that they know are in vogue and are selling well as they know we’d all benefit from it. However, I think art reproduction has a higher value in making people happy. The testimonials we keep on receiving and from my own experience of walking into my house and seeing my favourite pieces of art gracing my walls makes me extremely happy and proud of my home. Try putting a value on that!

A lot of people actually, not just from the UK. We’ve delivered art reproduction oil paintings to the USA, Australia, Dubai, Argentina, Moscow, France, Switzerland, Holland, Norway and Greece! These people range from being:

•   Period homeowners who need period style art reproduction paintings such as Van Dyck’s, Gainsborough’s and Turner’s.

•   Museums

•  Owners of an original piece of art who need to commission a fine art reproduction for security and insurance reasons.

•  Art enthusiasts

•  People who just want something a bit more special than a print in their home.

•  Interior designers

• New homeowners – A major reason, they tell us is that their new home has big blank walls and they can commission art reproductions from us that are made-to-measure  to fit the dimensions that they need.

•   People who suffer from blank-wall syndrome!

The majority of people who come to us and buy an art reproduction are simply looking for something a bit more special than the usual print. They are people who care about the appearance of their homes and prefer to have custom-made oil paintings on the walls of art that they love. When you visit an exhibition at an art gallery and spot a painting that wows you and moves you, it changes your mood, it uplifts you. Now imagine if you could transform your walls and experience the feelings of seeing your favourite pieces of art every day. This is one of the main reasons why people buy an art reproduction from us, it adds to their own personal enjoyment.