Classic Art Prints

This is the part of the collection that does not sit under one painter. Classic art prints from across four centuries — Dutch interiors, French impressionists, American scenes — chosen one painting at a time rather than by name recognition.

Who Is Here

The Old Masters: Rembrandt, Johannes Vermeer, Pieter Brueghel. The impressionists who are not Monet — Camille Pissarro, Édouard Manet, Georges Seurat, Paul Cézanne, Pierre Auguste Cot. And the American painters, which is where this collection is unusual: Winslow Homer, Frederic Remington, Grant Wood, John Trumbull, and Cassius Marcellus Coolidge — whose dogs around a card table have outlived most of the serious art of his century.

Where They Go

Pissarro and the impressionist street scenes suit a dining room or an entry. The Dutch interiors are dark and quiet and want a study or a hallway rather than a bright wall. Remington and Homer belong in a den or an office. Coolidge belongs wherever people play cards, which is usually a basement or a games room, and it is bought as a gift far more often than for the buyer.

An Honest Note On Choosing

A painting most people cannot name is often the better buy. The famous ones carry an association before anybody looks at them; a Pissarro street or a Spitzweg interior gets looked at on its own terms, and tends to stay interesting longer on a wall you pass every day.

Framed Or Canvas

Framed prints come in four frame colors — Barnwood, Charcoal, Black, and Walnut — in several sizes behind a clear front panel. Canvas arrives ready to hang, gallery-wrapped or floating-framed. All printed and finished to order in our family-owned shop in the USA on fade-resistant inks.

Building A Wall From This Collection

Because these come from different centuries and countries, they group by MOOD rather than by period. Three Dutch interiors hang together. So do three American outdoor scenes. What does not work is one of each — a Vermeer beside a Remington reads as two unrelated decisions rather than a wall.

The frame colour does more work here than it does elsewhere in the shop. The darker paintings — Rembrandt, Brueghel, the Dutch interiors — want Black or Walnut, which continue the picture rather than interrupting it. The impressionist street scenes and the American landscapes take Barnwood well.

A Gift Note

This is the section to look in when the person already owns the obvious things. Somebody who has been given Starry Night twice has not been given a Winslow Homer, and the pleasure of an unexpected painting is that it has to be looked at rather than recognised.