The painting shows an enormous tree with a hollowed base where two people, potentially young boys, are taking shelter. The boys sit together in the hollow base of the tree, one appearing to read a piece of paper.

The Truants

Eastman Johnson (American, 1824–1906)

Date: c. 1870
Medium: oil on academy board
Size: 23½ × 27 in (59.4 × 68.6 cm)
Museum: National Gallery of Art, Washington, accession 2014.136.90. See the museum’s record
Credit: Corcoran Collection (Museum Purchase, William A. Clark Fund, Gallery Fund and through the gift of Louise S. Thompson, 1963)

Public domain image courtesy of the National Gallery of Art (Open Access, CC0).

Palette

Closest wall colors:

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Hang it

Pick the furniture and a print size to see it to scale on your wall.

Where Print size

Print: 17¼ × 20 in, the whole painting on 20 × 20 in paper
Center: 66 in (167 cm) from the floor
Above the headboard: 8 in (20 cm) from the headboard to the frame
Ideal width: 40 to 45 in over a 60 in headboard
Why this height: Centered at eye level, this frame would not sit 6 to 10 in above the headboard, so the 8 in gap sets the height.

17¼ × 20 in landscape print (44 × 51 cm), centered 66 in from the floor, 8 in above the headboard. Drawn to scale on a 12 × 8 ft wall.

Try it on your wall color

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Print it

No standard paper matches this painting’s proportions closely, so print it whole with a white border, or trim the edges to fill the paper.

Paper	Filling the paper	Printed whole	Frame	Frame with a 2 in mat	Frame with a 3 in mat	Sharpness
8 × 10 in	trims 7.6 %	8 × 9¼ in	8 × 10 in ready-made	12 × 14 in custom	14 × 16 in custom	1667 dpi, crisp up close
12 × 12 in	trims 13.4 %	10½ × 12 in	12 × 12 in ready-made	16 × 16 in ready-made	18 × 18 in custom	1282 dpi, crisp up close
11 × 14 in	trims 9.2 %	11 × 12¾ in	11 × 14 in ready-made	15 × 18 in custom	17 × 20 in custom	1213 dpi, crisp up close
16 × 16 in	trims 13.4 %	14 × 16 in	16 × 16 in ready-made	20 × 20 in ready-made	22 × 22 in custom	959 dpi, crisp up close
16 × 20 in	trims 7.6 %	16 × 18½ in	16 × 20 in ready-made	20 × 24 in ready-made	22 × 26 in custom	833 dpi, crisp up close
20 × 20 in	trims 13.4 %	17¼ × 20 in	20 × 20 in ready-made	24 × 24 in ready-made	26 × 26 in custom	771 dpi, crisp up close

Sharpness is worked out from the largest file the museum offers. Above 300 dpi a print holds up at arm’s length; 150 dpi is plenty for a picture seen from across a sofa.

Download

Free for any use, including commercial: this image is public domain (CC0).

Thumbnail (WebP) 560 × 464 px from Room Paintings
Web image 843 × 698 px from National Gallery of Art
Print file 2,000 × 1,657 px from National Gallery of Art
Original file 16,105 × 13,343 px from National Gallery of Art
The museum’s record of this painting National Gallery of Art

Public domain image courtesy of the National Gallery of Art (Open Access, CC0). You may print, share, change and sell it without asking. Read what that means on our image license page, and how to get a good result in how to print a public-domain painting.