There is a pervasive fear that haunts many artists who are considering entering the print market. The logic goes like this: “If I offer an affordable open-edition print of my best painting, why would anyone ever pay thousands of dollars for the original? Won’t the cheap copy ‘cannibalize’ the sale of the masterpiece?”
To solve this imaginary problem, many artists decide to split their portfolio into two rigid lines. They designate certain images as “Print Only” and others as “Original Only,” ensuring the two never meet. They believe that by keeping their originals exclusive and unreproduced, they are protecting the value and “specialness” of the artwork for serious collectors.
While I understand the theoretical appeal of this strategy, my experience in the gallery business suggests that it is completely unnecessary. In fact, artificially separating your work into two lines might be holding back your sales potential in both categories.
Two Different Worlds
The most important thing to understand is that the person buying a $50 reproduction and the person buying a $5,000 original are usually two different customers. Or, at the very least, they are the same customer in two very different modes of buying.
Rarely does a collector walk into a gallery, fall in love with the texture, brushwork, and presence of an original oil painting, and then say, “Oh, wait, I can get a flat ink-jet print of this on Etsy for $100? I’ll take that instead.”
The collector buying the original wants the object itself. They want the scarcity, the hand of the artist, and the prestige of ownership. The existence of a reproduction does not diminish that desire. Conversely, the buyer purchasing the print usually does not have the budget for the original. By offering the print, you aren’t losing an original sale; you are gaining a customer who otherwise couldn’t afford to collect your work at all.
The Fame Factor
There is a counter-intuitive reality in the art world: Ubiquity often drives value.
Think about the most famous paintings in history—Van Gogh’s Starry Night or Da Vinci’s Mona Lisa. You can buy these images on coffee mugs, tote bags, posters, and mousepads. There are millions of reproductions in existence. Does that make the original painting less valuable? Of course not. It makes it an icon.
On a smaller scale, the same applies to working artists. If you create an image that becomes popular enough to sell hundreds of prints, you are building fame for that image. For the collector who owns the original, knowing that they possess the source material for a popular image can actually be a point of pride. It validates their taste. They own the “real thing” that everyone else admires.
Don’t Limit Your Inventory
By separating your work into “Print Lines” and “Original Lines,” you are essentially betting against yourself. You are guessing which images will sell as prints and which will sell as originals, and you might be wrong on both counts.
If you have a painting that is a “hit,” you should be able to maximize its revenue potential across all channels. There is no reason to hoard the original in a closet because you are selling prints, nor is there a reason to refuse to make prints of a sold original (provided you retained the rights, which you generally do).
The Size Question
If you are still nervous about this, there is a simple compromise that many artists use: Size Differentiation.
A common practice is to ensure that reproductions are never produced at the same scale as the original. If the original painting is a massive 30×40 inches, perhaps you only offer prints up to 16×20 inches. This creates a physical distinction between the products.
However, even this isn’t a hard-and-fast rule. I have represented artists who sold full-size canvas reproductions alongside the originals without issue. But if differentiation helps you (or your collectors) sleep better at night, changing the size is a much better solution than withholding the artwork entirely.
The Bottom Line
Don’t overcomplicate your inventory management based on a fear of a problem that rarely exists. Galleries are generally very adept at explaining the difference between an original and a reproduction to collectors.
Your job is to create the work and make it accessible. Let the market decide which version they can afford, but give them the opportunity to say “yes” to your art in whatever format fits their life.
What is your strategy?
Do you offer prints of your original work? Have you ever had a collector express concern that an image was reproduced, or have you found that prints help market your originals? Share your experience in the comments below.