Pricing your art

[Richard Monro]

Almost every year I do a survey of art pricing to determine how my art should be priced. Over the years that I have been doing this, I have discovered that art prices have a common denominator that holds true regardless of the type of art being sold. Portrait, figurative, landscape, abstract and virtually any other category of art is (knowingly or unwittingly) priced by the square inch. The range of prices per square inch tends to reflect the quality of the art and in the higher price ranges an artist

[Michele Rushworth]

This is fascinating, Richard. Thanks for posting it.

[Claudemir Bonfim]

Very nice research Richard, thanks for sharing.

[Garth Herrick]

Thanks Richard for your research. I should adjust some prices now.

Garth

[Richard Monro]

Garth,
Based on my observations of the market, you should be in the upper quartile. i know that is a rarefied zone to be in, but your work is certainly worthy of that placement.

Tony Pro
i hope you see this posting as some of the work you have at the Heritage Gallery is in my list. Great Stuff!

[Mary Sparrow]

Thank you so much for posting this Richard.

I, unfortunately, fall in the category of the artist described that was scared to raise his prices. I'm coming around slowly though.

[Enzie Shahmiri]

Richard,

This information is great and I thank you as well for sharing it with us. Have you observed what the trend is for charging for additional people in a portrait and weather or not pet portraits command the same per square inch ?

[Richard Monro]

Enzie,
When i first started this statistical market analysis many years ago, i tried many different ways of analyzing the raw data. The amazing conclusion of the analysis is that art pricing displays a direct correlation to price per square inch regardless of the subject matter. There is also a direct correlation to perceived reputation but virtually no correlation to any other factors.

Now to answer your questions:
1) With portraits or figurative art there seems to be a 10 to 20% boost in price for each additional figure. However, this is not a hard and fast rule. Some artists don't show any price change.

2) Animal or pet art commands the same price as all other types of art.

[Michele Rushworth]

You can get further information about portrait pricing by looking at the work of the many artists on the SOG site.

[Alexandra Tyng]

Thanks for posting this, Richard. It's very clearly stated and makes a lot of sense no matter how you sell work, whether you are in a gallery or not.

My work is in three galleries, and in addition to that, I often have shows in other venues. Things get a little complicated. Usually the gallery is willing to split their commission. In this kind of situation I never expect to get more than 50%, my usual commission, if it is piece that was in a gallery to begin with. If you are honest and make sure the gallery gets their part of the commission even if it is a piece that the gallery sent back because it wasn't sold, it helps promote good artist-gallery relations. I never sell anything or negotiate without consulting the manager of my primary gallery.

I'd be interested to hear how others manage this sort of situation.