Is Art Reproduction Legal?

The short answer to this is yes, yes art reproduction is legal if you follow and adhere to copyright law.

You can legally replicate any painting you like as long as the artist has been dead for over 70 years. If the artist is living or has died only recently then the only way to legally copy a painting is to ask permission from the artist (if they are still alive) or ask the artists’ estate.

 

What is fine art reproduction?

Fine Art reproduction is when an artist hand paints a replica of another painting.

Original                                                         Fine Art Reproduction

 

As you can see from the above, our artist at The Fine Art Reproduction Studio has hand painted a copy (a fine art replica) of George Washington.  The artist who originally painted this was Gilbert Stuart (1755 – 1828) and as he died in 1828 we are legally allowed to paint an art reproduction ( a copy) of the original.

That is because here in the UK after 70 years when an artist dies, his or her work then enters into the public domain and is no longer copyrighted. Although, there are exceptions to this and of course different countries have different copyright laws, which you would need to check.

So it isn’t forgery?

Art reproduction only really becomes forgery if we are painting a copy of an original painting and then were trying to pass it off as the original. This though would be pretty hard to do considering with an art reproduction there would be issues with a number of things such as provenance, and you’d need to make sure the canvas and oil paints that were used were specific to that era etc.

So then is it legal?

Yes, art reproduction is perfectly legal, you can commission a fine art reproduction of your favourite painting as long as you adhere to copyright law.

Do you have a question?

If you have a question concerning art reproductions or want to leave a comment then please email: anouska@fineartreproductionstudio.com or leave a comment below.