Journal

Original Painting or Print? What You Really Get for Your Money

Deutsche Version: Originalgemälde oder Kunstdruck? Was Sie wirklich bekommen

On a phone screen, an original painting and a good print of it look almost the same. Both are a picture of a picture. The difference shows up later, on your wall, in daylight and lamplight, over years. This guide explains what the different kinds of prints are, what an original gives you that a reproduction cannot, how to tell them apart, and when a print is honestly the better choice.

The examples come from the studio of Lena Krashevka in Cologne, where every work is painted by hand in oil, one at a time.

First, what does “print” actually mean?

The word covers very different things, and sellers do not always make that clear:

• Poster or art print: printed in large runs on paper, often by offset printing. Cheap, decorative, unlimited.
• Fine art print or giclée: printed on an inkjet printer with pigment inks on archival paper or canvas. Good colour, long-lasting, but still a copy, and in principle it can be printed again at any time.
• Canvas print: an image printed on canvas and stretched on a frame so that it looks like a painting. From across the room it can pass for one. Up close the surface is completely flat.
• Limited edition: a print run capped at a stated number, ideally numbered and signed by the artist. Scarcer than an open print, but there are still 50 or 100 of the same.
• Original: the painting the artist actually made. There is exactly one.

Five differences you can see and feel

1. The surface. Oil paint has a body. It sits in thin glazes in one place and in thicker strokes in another, and it catches the light differently from every angle. A print is a flat layer of ink. This close-up of a single eye from Reflection #49 shows what a print would flatten: every drop on the glass is a small, separate decision of the brush.

2. Colour and depth. In an oil painting, light passes through transparent layers of paint and reflects back from the layers below. That is why skin in a good painting can look warm and alive. A printer builds colour from tiny dots of a few inks next to each other, which reads well from a distance and less so up close.

3. The edges. Look at a painting from the side and you see the thickness of the canvas, the frame and how the work sits on the wall. That is why every work on this site shows views from the side as well as from the front.

4. The back. The back of an original tells its story: the canvas, the stretcher, and in Lena’s case her handwritten name, the title, the year and her signature. The back of a print usually tells you nothing, or names the print shop.

5. One of one. An original exists once. It has a place in the artist’s work, a series, a year, a reason it was painted. When you buy it, nobody else can own the same painting, and you can ask the artist about it directly.

How to tell an original from a print

Useful when you buy at a fair, online or second hand:

• Light from the side. Hold a lamp or phone torch at a low angle. Brushstrokes and raised paint cast tiny shadows. A print stays flat.
• Use a magnifier. Prints show a regular pattern of small dots. Paint shows irregular strokes and mixed colours.
• Check the edges. Many canvas prints have the image simply printed around the sides, sometimes blurred or mirrored.
• Turn it over. Look for the artist’s handwriting, gallery labels or exhibition stickers, and for printer labels or words like “giclée” that give a reproduction away.
• Ask for the story. A living artist or a serious gallery can tell you when and why a work was painted and provide an invoice that names it as an original.
• Ask for the documents. A certificate of authenticity signed by the artist names the title, size, technique and year, often with a photo of the work. Keep it together with the invoice: it matters for insurance and for a later sale.

When a print is the better choice

Prints are not a bad thing. If you love a work that hangs in a museum, a good print is the only way to live with it. If you are furnishing a rental flat on a tight budget, or want a picture for a children’s room that will change in three years, a print makes sense. Just know what you are buying, and pay a print price for it: a canvas print should not cost what an original costs.

An original is the better choice when you want a work that stays with you: one that keeps revealing details, that has a story you can tell guests, and that was made by a person you could actually meet.

Originals cost less than many people think

Many people assume original art starts at five figures. In Lena’s studio, small originals start at €930, and prices depend on size, not on hype. Three examples that are available now:

See all available works, sorted by size and price.

Questions buyers ask

Is an original painting a good investment? Nobody can honestly promise that a painting will rise in value. Buy a work because you want to live with it. What an original does keep is its uniqueness, which a print never has.

Does Lena sell prints? No. Everything on this site is an original painting, made by hand in Cologne.

Can I see a painting before I buy it? Yes. Studio visits in Cologne are possible by appointment. Get in touch to arrange one.

How does the painting get to me? By insured shipping, or you collect it in Cologne by appointment. Lena answers every enquiry personally.

Have a question about a specific work? Use the “Acquire This Artwork” button on its page, or write to Lena. More reading: Made by Hand: why original painting matters more in the age of AI.