Clearing Off

John Frederick Kensett (American, 1816–1872)

Date: ca. 1865
Medium: oil on canvas
Size: 25¾ × 35½ in (65.1 × 89.9 cm)
Museum: Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, accession 2024.22. See the museum’s record
Credit: Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Robert and Margaret Hazen

Public domain image courtesy of the Smithsonian American Art Museum (Smithsonian Open Access, CC0).

Palette

Closest wall colors:

Fits these rooms

Hang it

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

Where Print size

Print: 23¼ × 40 in, the whole painting on 30 × 40 in paper
Center: 54¾ in (139 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.

23¼ × 40 in landscape print (59 × 102 cm), centered 54¾ 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

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
5 × 7 in	trims 18.8 %	4 × 7 in	5 × 7 in ready-made	9 × 11 in custom	11 × 13 in custom	1052 dpi, crisp up close
12 × 16 in	trims 22.7 %	9¼ × 16 in	12 × 16 in ready-made	16 × 20 in ready-made	18 × 22 in custom	463 dpi, crisp up close
18 × 24 in	trims 22.7 %	14 × 24 in	18 × 24 in ready-made	22 × 28 in ready-made	24 × 30 in ready-made	310 dpi, crisp up close
20 × 30 in	trims 13 %	17½ × 30 in	20 × 30 in ready-made	24 × 34 in custom	26 × 36 in custom	247 dpi, crisp from a step back
24 × 36 in	trims 13 %	21 × 36 in	24 × 36 in ready-made	28 × 40 in custom	30 × 42 in custom	206 dpi, crisp from a step back
30 × 40 in	trims 22.7 %	23¼ × 40 in	30 × 40 in ready-made	34 × 44 in custom	36 × 46 in custom	185 dpi, crisp from a step back

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 × 325 px from Room Paintings
Web image 842 × 488 px from Smithsonian American Art Museum
Print file 2,000 × 1,158 px from Smithsonian American Art Museum
Original file 7,448 × 4,314 px from Smithsonian American Art Museum
The museum’s record of this painting Smithsonian American Art Museum

Public domain image courtesy of the Smithsonian American Art Museum (Smithsonian 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.