Should I Buy A Giclee Canvas Print Reproduction?

High quality digital art files are used to create high quality prints that closely match the original artwork. Giclee canvas prints and giclee fine art paper prints are produced using archival quality inks, archival fine art paper or artist’s canvas.

If you would like your giclee print to have the look of an original oil painting on canvas or board, then you should order a giclee canvas print and display the print without glass. Alternatively if you would like to display your print behind glass then you should order an archival fine art paper print. Giclee canvas prints and giclee paper prints are on display at some of the world’s leading art galleries, such as the New York Museum of Modern Art.

Due to the high quality of the print reproduction giclee prints work well with many different styles of painting and work particularly well for reproductions of antique works of art. Genres that work well on canvas include landscapes, seascapes, fox hunting prints, equine prints and canine prints from the late seventeenth century to the early twentieth century, as well as early American folk art or primitive art portraits. Genres that work well on archival fine art paper include reproductions of illustrations from old books such as Victorian era botanical prints, Beatrix Potter book illustrations and Edgar Allen Poe book illustrations.

Giclee canvas prints are printed on artist’s canvas using a very high-quality digital print file. After printing, the canvas may then be coated by hand by brushing on an acrylic varnish, to give the print some of the texture of the original painting. This also further protects the archival inks used to produce the print. Most giclee prints are produced using archival inks, which means that the inks have been certified by the manufacturer to last for over 100 years for indoor displays (many inks are certified to last longer than that in fact). Most reputable companies that produce giclee prints advertise that they use archival inks, but if they don’t you should check before purchasing your print. This is important, as you would like the print to last for generations to come.

Depending on the original artwork you may want to consider requesting that a brushstroke coating of acrylic varnish is applied to your giclee canvas print. This further protects the archival inks but should only be chosen when the brushtrokes of the original are easily identified. Brushstroke varnish coatings can give a wonderful texture to a print but are not appropriate for some reproductions – such as photographs or very fine watercolor originals, where it is not possible to reproduce the texture of original’s fine brushwork. In such situations some companies either use a spray method to apply the varnish or use specially pre-varnished canvas to produce the print. Both methods ensure that heavy brushwork does not obscure the more delicate detail of the original painting.

Most giclee canvas print companies offer to send you your giclee canvas print either ‘stretched’ or ‘unstretched’. A canvas print is stretched when it is attached over a wooden stretcher frame (like a skin over drum). A canvas print needs to be stretched before it can be framed. If you order an unstretched canvas print online then you will need to have your local frameshop stretch it for you before it can be framed. The shipping cost will usually be cheaper for unstretched prints however, as they are usually shipped rolled in a tube.

Gallery-wrapping a canvas allows the print to be hung on the wall without a frame. Gallery-wrapping is also sometimes called museum-wrapping. When a canvas print is gallery-wrapped, it is stretched over an internal wooden stretcher frame in the way described above, but before stretching a block of color is added around the edge of the original art so that the colors of the print wrap around the edges of the stretcher frame. The finished gallery-wrapped canvas can then be hung as a panel on your wall, without showing any white canvas along the side edges of the print. If the print were not gallery-wrapped in this way then white canvas would otherwise show around the edges of the panel, and the piece would not look finished.

It is not necessary to gallery-wrap your canvas print if you know for certain that you intend to frame the print, because the sides of the stretched canvas will always be completely hidden by the frame. A gallery-wrapped canvas print can always however be framed later, in the same way as a stretched print would be, so if you would like the flexibility to display your canvas print either framed or unframed, then you should purchase a gallery-wrapped canvas print.

If you would prefer to display your giclee print behind glass then order the print on archival fine art paper rather than on canvas. You should however, make sure that the paper used is archival fine art paper to avoid any future deterioration in the print. Fine art paper prints are usually mounted on board behind an archival card matte and then behind glass in a frame.

When we refer to archival fine art paper we mean paper that has been produced without the use of chlorine or other chemicals that could deteriorate the paper (and therefore the print) over time. Fine art paper prints work well where the original art was a watercolor or was on paper in an old book or lithograph. In any event a good printer should be able to reproduce the ageing of the paper that the original art was produced on in the reproduction.

Maintaining the aged background of the old paper in the print reproduction can be an integral part of maintaining the character of the original work in the reproduction, but that does not mean that you want the paper of your print to deteriorate further by using non-archival paper for the reproduction. Some companies also offer the service of reproducing a painting or illustration that was originally in color in black and white or sepia. This works particularly well if you would like to display a collection of prints in a group by the same artist or different artists.

Please do not hestitate to contact me or any of the Encore Editions team should you have any questions.

Looking to find the best quality and prices for Giclee Canvas Prints, then visit www.encore-editions.com to view our superb range of custom-printed 15th Century to Early 20th Century Fine Art Prints for your space at wholesale prices.