There are exactly four surfaces in this building. One of them is for paint. Three of them are for ink. Every order that leaves here lands on one of the four, and the choice is made — usually in about ten seconds, usually by someone who has never thought about a substrate in their life — in a dropdown.
So here is the whole thing laid out: what each one is, what it does, which to pick, and what the same two paintings cost on each of them here and at four other reputable vendors. Prices are real and current, not "from" prices.
The 30-Second Answer
Hand-painted oil paintings: 100% linen canvas, 300 gsm. Prints: matte Epson archival paper-canvas (300+ gsm, matte surface, high Dmax, wide colour gamut — solid enough to be framed, which a lightweight paper print is not), or 300 gsm cotton canvas in glossy or matt. Choose by destination: going into a frame behind glass → matte archival paper-canvas. Stretched on bars and hung bare → cotton canvas, glossy for depth and saturation, matt for a painterly, glare-free surface. Hand-painted in oil → linen, always. Every print and every oil painting ships with a 2-inch (5.1 cm) margin on all four sides, for framing.
The Four Surfaces, Side by Side
| 100% linen canvas | Matte archival paper-canvas | Glossy cotton canvas | Matt cotton canvas | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Used for | Hand-painted oil paintings | Prints | Prints | Prints |
| Fibre / base | 100% flax linen | Archival paper base, canvas texture | Cotton | Cotton |
| Weight | 300 gsm | 300+ gsm | 300 gsm | 300 gsm |
| Surface | Irregular, slubbed weave | Matte, lightly textured | Glossy, smooth | Matt, canvas weave |
| Black depth | Whatever the paint does | High Dmax — deep blacks for a matte surface | Deepest of the prints | Slightly lifted |
| Colour | Pigment, mixed by hand | Wide colour gamut | Highest saturation | Slightly softer |
| Glare | Low (unvarnished oil) | None | Yes, directional | None |
| Can be framed behind glass | No — oils are not glazed | Yes — rigid enough | Not usual | Not usual |
| Can be stretched on bars | Yes, always | No — it is a rigid sheet | Yes | Yes |
| Margin supplied | 2 in (5.1 cm), all 4 sides | 2 in (5.1 cm), all 4 sides | 2 in (5.1 cm), all 4 sides | 2 in (5.1 cm), all 4 sides |
| Reads as | A painting, because it is one | A framed fine-art print | A rich photographic print | An oil painting |
100% Linen — the One That Carries Paint
Every hand-painted oil painting we produce is painted on 100% linen canvas at 300 gsm, and that is not negotiable internally.
Linen is woven from flax. Flax fibres are long, so the yarn has fewer joins and therefore fewer weak points than a cotton yarn of the same thickness, whose fibres are short. Longer fibre means higher tensile strength, and higher tensile strength means the canvas holds stretcher tension for decades instead of years.
That matters more than it sounds. A print carries a thin, permanently flexible ink layer. An oil painting carries a physical film of paint that cures over months into a solid and then, slowly, becomes less flexible than the cloth beneath it. If the support sags and is later re-tensioned, the paint film has to follow — and where it cannot follow, it cracks. A support that holds tension is the single conservation decision that outlives everything else about the object.
The second reason is the weave. Linen is subtly irregular — slubs, varying yarn thickness — so the drag on a loaded brush changes minutely as the stroke travels, and dry-brush edges break up on their own. The originals were painted on this material. A stroke that behaved a certain way on the painter's linen behaves that way again on ours.
Matte Archival Paper-Canvas — the Only Print You Can Properly Frame
A hybrid: an archival paper base carrying a canvas-like matte texture, at 300+ gsm. Four properties define it, and the fourth is the one people underestimate.
- Matte surface. Scatters light in every direction: no hotspot, no reflected window, identical from any viewing position.
- High Dmax. The weakness of ordinary matte paper is that scattering lifts the blacks and shadows go dusty grey. A high-Dmax stock holds the ink where it lands, so the darkest tone stays genuinely dark while the surface stays genuinely matte. On night scenes and Baroque interiors this is the entire product.
- Wide colour gamut. A narrow gamut rarely produces a wrong colour — it produces a compressed one: three reds arriving as one red, a sky gradient banding into steps. Wide gamut keeps the separations alive.
- 300+ gsm weight — solid enough to be framed. A lightweight paper print is not. Put thin paper under a mount and behind glass and it cockles, ripples and telegraphs every humidity change through the glazing, usually within a season, and it cannot be flattened again without remounting. Heavyweight archival stock takes window-mounting, float-mounting, dry-mounting or close framing and stays flat.
If the words "I already have a frame" appear anywhere in the order, this is the substrate.
Glossy vs Matt Cotton Canvas — Same Cloth, Different Light
Both are 300 gsm cotton canvas, same fibre, same weave, printed the same way and stretched the same way. The only difference is the finish, and the finish changes only how light leaves the surface.
Glossy reflects in one direction and keeps ink density under a smooth coating: deeper blacks, higher saturation, and — as a consequence of both — more apparent depth, a lit figure standing in front of a dark ground rather than pasted onto it. The cost is glare. Hang it opposite a window and you spend half of every day looking at a rectangle of sky.
Matt scatters light: no glare, identical from any angle, and it reads as paint. Real oil, unvarnished or lightly varnished, is not a glossy surface — which is why a matt canvas print of a Monet looks like a Monet across a room, while a glossy one looks like an excellent photograph of a Monet. The cost is a step of contrast in the darkest passages.
The 300 gsm figure does real work on both. Lighter canvas — the 200–260 gsm stock common in cheap canvas prints — pulls unevenly over the bars, shows corner distortion and telegraphs the bar edges through the face in raking light, and slackens within a year or two.
How to Choose in Ten Seconds
| What you want | Order | Because |
|---|---|---|
| A hand-painted oil painting | 100% linen, 300 gsm | The only support that holds tension under a curing paint film; the traditional oil canvas |
| A print that goes into a frame, behind glass | Matte archival paper-canvas | The only print substrate rigid enough to frame and stay flat |
| You already own the frame | Matte archival paper-canvas | Same reason, and the 2-inch (5.1 cm) margin gives the framer room to fit it |
| A print stretched on bars, hung bare, dark dramatic image | Glossy cotton canvas | Deepest blacks, highest saturation, most depth |
| A print stretched on bars that should look like a painting | Matt cotton canvas | No glare, painterly surface, reads as oil across a room |
| The wall faces a window or sits under direct downlights | Any matte surface — paper-canvas or matt cotton | Lighting geometry beats surface preference every time |
The 2-Inch Margin, on All Four of Them
Every print on every one of the three print substrates, and every hand-painted oil painting, is delivered with a 2-inch (about 5 cm) margin on all four sides. It is there for framing, and it does a different job on each surface:
- On linen and on cotton canvas: it is the material that wraps around the stretcher bars and is fastened behind them. Two inches (5.1 cm) per side covers a standard bar depth with enough left to pull even tension and staple out of sight. A canvas trimmed flush to the image simply cannot be stretched.
- On matte archival paper-canvas: it is what a framer uses for the mount overlap, the rebate, or a float mount where the edge of the sheet is deliberately visible.
- On an oil painting, permanently: it is also the spare cloth a conservator will need if the canvas is ever re-stretched — normal over a long life, not a disaster, but impossible without an edge.
Two consequences you should plan around. The size you order is the image — the sheet or canvas is four inches (10.2 cm) larger in each direction, so measure the wall accordingly. And do not trim the margin before it reaches a framer. It is the most easily destroyed and least replaceable part of the object, and cutting it is the single most common irreversible mistake made between delivery and the wall.
We are not unusual in supplying it — we are unusual in supplying it on everything. TOPofART adds 4 cm (1.6 in) of margin for stretching on its hand-painted oils. Reproduction Gallery supplies 7.5 cm (just under 3 in) of clean surplus canvas. MFA Prints sizes its archival replicas by paper size with a minimum one-inch (2.5 cm) border, so the image is smaller than the sheet you buy. The convention is real; the amounts differ, and so does whether prints get one at all.
What It Actually Costs: One Mona Lisa Print
A print of Leonardo's Mona Lisa (La Gioconda) at 20 × 30 in (50.8 × 76.2 cm), image size, on our matte archival paper-canvas or cotton canvas. Our figures are live quotations from each site's own pricing, and include free worldwide delivery. Competitor figures are their published prices, converted at the exchange rates in use on 10 August 2026 (EUR 0.8655, GBP 0.7415 per USD).
| Vendor | Substrate | Size | Published price | ≈ USD | Margin supplied |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| WahooArt.com | Matte archival paper-canvas, or cotton canvas glossy/matt | 20 × 30 in (50.8 × 76.2 cm) image | $67 | $67 | 2 in (5.1 cm), 4 sides |
| AllPaintingsStore.com | Same four substrates | 20 × 30 in (50.8 × 76.2 cm) image | $64 | $64 | 2 in (5.1 cm), 4 sides |
| TopImpressionists.com | Same four substrates | 20 × 30 in (50.8 × 76.2 cm) image | $69 | $69 | 2 in (5.1 cm), 4 sides |
| MFA Prints (Museum of Fine Arts, Boston) | Archival pigment ink on cotton rag paper | 20 × 24 in (50.8 × 61 cm) paper | $180 | $180 | ≥ 1 in (2.5 cm) border, inside the paper size |
| MFA Prints — framed | Same, in a wood frame | Various | $250–$500 | $250–$500 | As above |
| Fabulous Masterpieces | — | — | Does not sell prints — hand-painted oils only | ||
| Reproduction Gallery | — | — | Does not sell prints — hand-painted oils only | ||
The interesting line is the museum's. MFA Prints charges $180 for a 20 × 24 in (50.8 × 61 cm) sheet of archival pigment ink on cotton rag paper — and note that the size you buy is the paper, with the image scaled down inside it to leave a border. That is a defensible price for a museum-licensed archival print, and it is also 2.7× ours for less image on a smaller sheet. The substrate class is the same idea; the pricing model is not.
What It Actually Costs: One Starry Night, Hand-Painted in Oil
A hand-painted oil reproduction of van Gogh's The Starry Night at 24 × 30 in (61 × 76 cm), painted image size, on 100% linen. Every price below is for a genuinely hand-painted oil on canvas — no prints in this table.
| Vendor | Canvas | Size | Published price | ≈ USD | Margin supplied |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| WahooArt.com | 100% linen, 300 gsm | 24 × 30 in (61 × 76.2 cm) painted | $317 | $317 | 2 in (5.1 cm), 4 sides |
| AllPaintingsStore.com | 100% linen, 300 gsm | 24 × 30 in (61 × 76.2 cm) painted | $303 | $303 | 2 in (5.1 cm), 4 sides |
| TopImpressionists.com | 100% linen, 300 gsm | 24 × 30 in (61 × 76.2 cm) painted | $314 | $314 | 2 in (5.1 cm), 4 sides |
| Fabulous Masterpieces | Oil on cotton duck canvas | 29 × 36 in (73.7 × 92.1 cm) | £220 + VAT | ≈ $297 excl. VAT; ≈ $356 incl. UK VAT | Stretching is a paid extra, £60–£80 |
| TOPofART (Mona Lisa, for scale) | Oil on linen canvas | 27.6 × 19.7 in (70 × 50 cm) | €2,297 | ≈ $2,654 | 4 cm (1.6 in) for stretching |
| MFA Archival Replicas | — | — | Prints only — the museum does not sell hand-painted oils | ||
Read that table carefully, because it contains the single largest number on this page and the number is not a mistake. TOPofART's hand-painted Mona Lisa is €2,297–€2,405 (≈$2,654–$2,779) against our $269 for the same painting at a comparable size. Both are oil on linen. Both are hand-painted by trained people. The gap is a labour market, not a materials specification — a European studio with academically trained painters quoting 8–9 weeks sells different hours than a high-volume reproduction atelier does, and neither of them is lying to you about the canvas.
The rest of the table is tighter than you would expect: $299 to $323 at Reproduction Gallery, ≈$297 before VAT at Fabulous Masterpieces, $303 to $317 at WahooArt, AllPaintingsStore and TopImpressionists. That band is the real market price for a hand-painted oil at this size. Where the differences hide is underneath: linen or cotton duck, margin included or stretching billed separately, and whether the delivered price still has VAT and freight to come.
The Three Questions That Actually Separate These Vendors
- What is the cloth? "Canvas" is not a specification. Oil on 100% linen (ours, TOPofART's) is a different long-term proposition from oil on cotton duck (Fabulous Masterpieces' published material), and for prints, rag paper (MFA) behaves differently from a matte paper-canvas hybrid or a woven cotton canvas.
- Is the margin included, and how much? Ours is 2 inches (5.1 cm) on all four sides, on everything, at no extra cost. TOPofART gives 4 cm on oils. Reproduction Gallery gives 7.5 cm on oils. Fabulous Masterpieces bills stretching at £60–£80 as a separate service. MFA sells you the paper size and puts the border inside it, so your image is smaller than the number on the price list.
- Is the price the price? Ours includes free worldwide delivery. A UK price quoted "+ VAT" is 20% light. A price that excludes shipping on a 30-inch (76.2 cm) parcel is meaningfully light. Compare delivered totals, in one currency, at one image size — which is the only reason the tables above are built the way they are.
Frequently Asked Questions
What canvas do you use for prints and for oil paintings?
Four surfaces in total. Hand-painted oil paintings: 100% linen canvas, 300 gsm. Prints: matte Epson archival paper-canvas (matte surface, high Dmax, wide colour gamut, 300+ gsm), glossy cotton canvas (300 gsm), or matt cotton canvas (300 gsm). Linen carries paint; the other three carry ink, and which of the three you want depends on whether the print is going into a frame or onto stretcher bars.
Which of the four should I order?
Decide by destination, not by taste. Framed behind glass → matte archival paper-canvas, the only print substrate rigid enough to frame and stay flat. Stretched and hung bare, dark dramatic image, controlled lighting → glossy cotton. Stretched and hung bare, should look like a painting, or the wall faces a window → matt cotton. Hand-painted in oil → 100% linen, which is not a choice, it is what oils are painted on here.
Why can the matte archival paper-canvas be framed when an ordinary paper print cannot?
Weight and stiffness. At 300+ gsm the stock is rigid enough to be mounted, glazed, float-mounted or dry-mounted and to stay flat behind the glass. A lightweight paper print cockles and ripples under mounting and with normal humidity swings — you see it as a gentle wave under the glazing, usually within a season, and it cannot be flattened without remounting. The high Dmax matters here too: it is what stops a matte surface from rendering blacks as dusty grey.
Why do all your prints and paintings have a 2-inch (5.1 cm) margin on all four sides?
For framing. On canvas — linen or cotton — those two inches (5.1 cm) per side are what wraps around the stretcher bars and is fastened behind them, with enough left to pull even tension. On the matte archival paper-canvas they are what a framer uses for the mount overlap, the rebate or a float mount. On an oil painting they are also the spare cloth a conservator needs if it is ever re-stretched. So the size you order is the image, the material is four inches (10.2 cm) larger in each direction, and you should never trim it before your framer sees it.
How do your prices compare with other reproduction sellers?
At 20 × 30 in (50.8 × 76.2 cm), a Mona Lisa print is $64–$69 at WahooArt, AllPaintingsStore and TopImpressionists, against ≈$67 for TOPofART's canvas print and $180 for a 20 × 24 in (50.8 × 61 cm) MFA Prints archival replica on cotton rag paper (paper size, image smaller). At 24 × 30 in (61 × 76.2 cm), a hand-painted Starry Night in oil on linen is $303–$317 at WahooArt, AllPaintingsStore and TopImpressionists, against $299–$323 at Reproduction Gallery and ≈$297 before UK VAT at Fabulous Masterpieces, whose stretching is a £60–£80 extra. The outlier is TOPofART's hand-painted work at ≈$2,654–$2,779 for the Mona Lisa — same medium, same linen, a different labour market. Prices are as published on 10 August 2026 and converted at that day's rates.
Sources and Method
- Our prices are live quotations from each site's own pricing rules at the stated image size, in USD, delivery included, before frame and options: WahooArt.com, AllPaintingsStore.com, TopImpressionists.com.
- TOPofART — Mona Lisa (La Gioconda), painting reproduction 1010: oil on linen, €2,405 at 77 × 53 cm and €2,297 at 70 × 50 cm, canvas print €57.63, 4 cm margins for stretching, shipped rolled, 8–9 weeks.
- Reproduction Gallery — Starry Night 1889 by Vincent van Gogh: hand-painted oil on canvas, $299 at 59 × 75 cm rising to $1,672 at 236 × 300 cm, 7.5 cm surplus canvas, gallery-wrap options $0–$65.
- Fabulous Masterpieces — Van Gogh reproductions: Starry Night at 73.7 × 92.1 cm, £220 excluding VAT; stretching £60–£80; heavy grade cotton duck canvas per their art-reproduction page.
- Museum of Fine Arts, Boston — Archival Replicas and MFA Prints: archival pigment inks on cotton rag paper, unframed $75 (12 × 15 in / 30.5 × 38.1 cm) to $260 (24 × 30 in / 61 × 76.2 cm), framed $250–$500, sizes quoted as paper dimensions with a minimum one-inch (2.5 cm) border.
- Currency conversions at the exchange rates in force on 10 August 2026: EUR 0.8655 and GBP 0.7415 to the US dollar.
Prices and specifications as of 10 August 2026.
