How to Price Original Artwork

A collector stops in front of the 24 × 30 inch painting on your studio wall and asks what it costs. You say a number, and the moment it's out of your mouth you couldn't explain where it came from. That's the trouble with pricing originals by feel: each number seems defensible on its own, and none of them agree with each other. A collector who sees a small study at $900 next to a canvas three times its size at $1,200 will notice — and so will any gallery thinking about taking you on.

Prints run on different logic, and pricing them is mostly arithmetic on a manufactured multiple. An original is one of one, so its price has to come from a system you apply to everything you make. Here's how to build one.

Step 1: Find your floor

Before any formula, work out the lowest price you can afford to accept — net, after any commission, not the number on the wall.

• Materials. Canvas or panel, paint, framing, crating.
• A share of overheads. Studio rent, photography, website, shipping supplies.
• Your time, at a modest hourly rate.

That total is a floor, not a price, and the distinction has a famous test case. In November 1878 James McNeill Whistler sued the critic John Ruskin for libel after Ruskin accused him of asking 200 guineas for "flinging a pot of paint in the public's face." In court, Ruskin's counsel pressed Whistler on how long his Nocturne in Black and Gold had taken — about two days — and asked whether two days' labour was what he was charging for. "No," Whistler answered, "I ask it for the knowledge I have gained in the work of a lifetime." He won the case and was awarded a single farthing in damages, but the line has outlived the verdict. Pricing by the hour punishes exactly the fluency years of work are supposed to buy.

Step 2: Choose one size formula and use it for everything

Size is the fairest proxy for value within one artist's work, which is why most pricing systems start there. Two formulas cover nearly everyone:

1. Square inch: height × width × your rate. A 24 × 30 inch canvas is 720 square inches; at $3 a square inch, that's $2,160.
2. Linear inch: (height + width) × your rate. The same canvas is 54 linear inches; at $40 an inch, that's also $2,160.

The two agree at that size and part company everywhere else. An 8 × 10 inch study comes to $240 by the square inch but $720 by the linear inch; a 48 × 60 inch canvas comes to $8,640 by the square inch but $4,320 by the linear inch. Square-inch pricing climbs steeply with size, which suits artists whose large works are their main event. Linear-inch pricing values small works more and large ones less, which suits anyone who makes a wide range of sizes.

Pick one formula per medium, set your rate, and apply it to every piece — works on paper are commonly priced below canvas at the same size, at a rate you set once and keep. The rate is the variable your career moves; the formula is the thing that keeps your prices making sense next to each other.

Step 3: Set one retail price that survives a commission

Galleries traditionally take half of the retail price; a sixty-forty split in the artist's favor is common too, and the full range of consignment terms is worth knowing before you sign anything. Either way, the price on the wall has to leave you at least your floor. If you need $1,080 from a sale and the gallery takes 50%, the retail price is $2,160.

Then charge that same retail price everywhere — gallery, website, open studio. Selling the same work more cheaply from your studio than a gallery sells it undercuts the people working to sell you, and galleries notice. It's also the strongest argument for pricing as though a commission applies even when you sell direct: one consistent price is the only kind that survives your first gallery.

Step 4: Check the price against the market you're actually in

Find artists at your own stage working in a similar medium, at similar sizes, in your region, and look at their list prices — gallery prices already include the commission, so compare retail to retail. Ignore auction records for famous names; they're set by a market you aren't in yet. If your formula lands far outside the band, adjust the rate, not the formula. A gallery considering your work will look for prices that sit comfortably alongside the artists it already shows, which is one more reason to get this right before you approach a gallery.

Mistakes and what they cost

Step 5: Raise prices on evidence, and almost never cut them

Raise your rate when the evidence says the work is underpriced: a body of work that sells through, a waiting list, a gallery that wants more than you can make. Milestones such as exhibitions, awards, residencies, publications and institutional acquisitions justify a step up too. Raise in steps rather than leaps, and apply the new rate to new work and unsold inventory at the same time.

Cutting prices is the move to avoid. Every collector who bought at the old price just watched their purchase lose value, and the lower number becomes your new ceiling. If work isn't selling, make smaller pieces at your current rate, or look harder at where you're showing.

Step 6: Keep records you can stand behind

Keep a price list with the title, dimensions, medium, date and retail price of every work, and record every sale: price, buyer, venue, and commission paid. Good photographs belong in the same file — photographing your own artwork properly pays for itself the first time a buyer asks for details. That record is what makes a price rise defensible, and it's the documentation side of building a sustainable art career.