A young woman draws on an oval surface with white chalk while three winged, baby-like putti gather nearby, all on a bank of pale pink clouds in this horizontal painting.

Allegory of Painting

François Boucher (French, 1703–1770)

Date: 1765
Medium: oil on canvas
Size: 40 × 51¼ in (101.5 × 130 cm)
Museum: National Gallery of Art, Washington, accession 1946.7.1. See the museum’s record
Credit: Samuel H. Kress Collection

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

Palette

Closest wall colors:

Hang it

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

Where Print size

Print: 36 × 48 in, filling the paper (trims 3.9 % of the picture)
Center: 61¼ in (156 cm) from the floor
Above the sofa: 8 in (20 cm) from the sofa to the frame
Ideal width: 56 to 63 in over an 84 in sofa
Why this height: Centered at eye level, this frame would not sit 6 to 10 in above the sofa, so the 8 in gap sets the height.

36 × 48 in landscape print (91 × 122 cm), centered 61¼ in from the floor, 8 in above the sofa. Drawn to scale on a 12 × 8 ft wall.

Try it on your wall color

Default greige

Print it

Standard paper sizes that keep this painting’s proportions, the frames that fit them, and how sharp each one prints.

Paper	Filling the paper	Printed whole	Frame	Frame with a 2 in mat	Frame with a 3 in mat	Sharpness
8 × 10 in	trims 2.4 %	7¾ × 10 in	8 × 10 in ready-made	12 × 14 in custom	14 × 16 in custom	2304 dpi, crisp up close
11 × 14 in	trims 0.6 %	11 × 14 in	11 × 14 in ready-made	15 × 18 in custom	17 × 20 in custom	1671 dpi, crisp up close
12 × 16 in	trims 3.9 %	12 × 15½ in	12 × 16 in ready-made	16 × 20 in ready-made	18 × 22 in custom	1462 dpi, crisp up close
16 × 20 in	trims 2.4 %	15½ × 20 in	16 × 20 in ready-made	20 × 24 in ready-made	22 × 26 in custom	1152 dpi, crisp up close
18 × 24 in	trims 3.9 %	18 × 23 in	18 × 24 in ready-made	22 × 28 in ready-made	24 × 30 in ready-made	975 dpi, crisp up close
30 × 40 in	trims 3.9 %	30 × 38½ in	30 × 40 in ready-made	34 × 44 in custom	36 × 46 in custom	585 dpi, crisp up close
36 × 48 in	trims 3.9 %	36 × 46 in	36 × 48 in ready-made	40 × 52 in custom	42 × 54 in custom	487 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 × 441 px from Room Paintings
Web image 843 × 664 px from National Gallery of Art
Print file 2,000 × 1,576 px from National Gallery of Art
Original file 23,403 × 18,436 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.