Two pale-skinned women sit facing each other on a long sofa centered on the wall across from us in a room warmly lit from the right in this horizontal painting. The scene is loosely painted so some details are indistinct.

A Friendly Call

William Merritt Chase (American, 1849–1916)

Date: 1895
Medium: oil on canvas
Size: 30 × 48¼ in (76.5 × 122.5 cm)
Museum: National Gallery of Art, Washington, accession 1943.1.2. See the museum’s record
Credit: Chester Dale 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: 25 × 40 in, the whole painting on 30 × 40 in paper
Center: 55¾ in (142 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.

25 × 40 in landscape print (64 × 102 cm), centered 55¾ 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 12.6 %	4½ × 7 in	5 × 7 in ready-made	9 × 11 in custom	11 × 13 in custom	1434 dpi, crisp up close
12 × 16 in	trims 16.7 %	10 × 16 in	12 × 16 in ready-made	16 × 20 in ready-made	18 × 22 in custom	631 dpi, crisp up close
18 × 24 in	trims 16.7 %	15 × 24 in	18 × 24 in ready-made	22 × 28 in ready-made	24 × 30 in ready-made	420 dpi, crisp up close
20 × 30 in	trims 6.3 %	18¾ × 30 in	20 × 30 in ready-made	24 × 34 in custom	26 × 36 in custom	337 dpi, crisp up close
24 × 36 in	trims 6.3 %	22½ × 36 in	24 × 36 in ready-made	28 × 40 in custom	30 × 42 in custom	280 dpi, crisp from a step back
30 × 40 in	trims 16.7 %	25 × 40 in	30 × 40 in ready-made	34 × 44 in custom	36 × 46 in custom	252 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 × 349 px from Room Paintings
Web image 843 × 526 px from National Gallery of Art
Print file 2,000 × 1,247 px from National Gallery of Art
Original file 10,117 × 6,310 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.