Most people who commission a portrait spend weeks on the photograph, the size and the background, and four minutes on what arrives with the painting. That is backwards: the canvas will outlive the conversation by a century, and the small folder of paper beside it is the only thing that will still connect the object to a name, a date and a price when everyone who ordered it is gone.
What should actually be in the box
A completed commission is a painting plus six supporting items, and a studio that has shipped more than a handful includes all six without being asked:
- The painting itself, stretched on a stretcher bar and ready to hang. Gallery depth is 1.5 in; a shallow traditional bar is 0.75 in. On anything larger than 24 × 36 in, ask which one, because the answer changes what kind of frame will fit later.
- A certificate of authenticity, one page, hand-signed, with a reference number that also appears on the invoice.
- A care sheet covering dusting, light levels and humidity. If it does not mention varnish, ask when the varnish was applied.
- The invoice or receipt showing date, dimensions, price and your name. It is the most useful document you will own if the painting is ever damaged — insurers settle faster against a purchase document than against a story.
- Hanging hardware: two D-rings and braided wire for canvases up to about 24 × 36 in, a French cleat above that. A $15–30 cleat is not a luxury on a 12 lb painting.
- A photograph of the finished work, 300 dpi at final size, taken before it was wrapped. You will want it for insurance, for the family group chat, and for the day the painting is in another country.
If any of the six is missing when the crate opens, say so before you hang the painting. Reissuing a certificate in week one is far easier than in year twelve.
The signature, and what it actually certifies
Painters sign lower right more often than anywhere else, but lower left is common when the composition is weighted right, and a few sign only on the back edge. Size follows the canvas: roughly 1–2 in wide on a 16 × 20 in, 2–3 in on a 24 × 36 in. The colour sits quietly — a thin dark line on light passages, a light line on dark ones, mixed from the painting rather than pulled from a tube.
What the signature is not: a grade, a valuation, or independent proof of authorship. It is the artist's own statement, and a statement is only as strong as the paperwork that repeats it — which is why the signature, the back and the certificate need to agree, and why a mismatch is the first thing a dealer looks for.
When the signature is a monogram
Two or three interlaced initials are traditional and legitimate, but useless to anyone who does not already know the painter. If your painting is monogrammed rather than signed in full, ask for the full name to be written out on the certificate. An unexplained monogram is a small provenance gap that costs nothing to close now and is awkward to close later.
What a certificate of authenticity should contain
There is no standard form, which is why the contents matter. A certificate worth keeping carries nine things:
- The title of the work, or “Portrait of [name]” if it has none.
- Medium and support, precisely: oil on cotton canvas, not simply “oil painting”.
- Dimensions in both inches and centimetres, unframed.
- Date of completion, written the same way as on the back of the canvas.
- The artist's name, hand-signed, plus the studio's contact details.
- The buyer's name and the purchase date.
- A unique reference number, matching the invoice.
- A sentence stating that it is an original, hand-painted work — or, for a copy after a museum painting, a clear statement that it is a hand-painted reproduction of a public-domain work and not an antique.
- A thumbnail image of the finished painting.
In the United States, “certificate of authenticity” is not a regulated term. Anyone can print one, and a beautiful one proves nothing on its own. What makes a certificate credible is dull and verifiable: a reference number that appears in three places, a hand signature, a studio that still answers email in a decade, and a date that matches the invoice.
It also does not do two things people assume it does. It does not establish market value — that is an appraisal — and it does not transfer copyright, which stays with the painter unless it is assigned in writing. We cover that split separately in who owns a commissioned portrait.
Certificate, appraisal, receipt: three documents, three jobs
| Document | Who issues it | Typical cost | What it establishes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Invoice or receipt | The studio | Included | What you paid, when, and for what size |
| Certificate of authenticity | The artist or studio | Included | Who made it, what it is, when it was finished |
| Appraisal | An independent qualified appraiser | $150–400 for a single painting | Replacement or market value on a given date |
| Condition report | A conservator | $100–250 | Physical state on a given date, for older or inherited work |
For a $389 to $1,090 commission, the first two are all you need. An appraisal earns its fee when the painting is scheduled on a policy, donated, or divided in an estate — and in the US, a charitable deduction for donated art above $5,000 generally requires a qualified appraisal, so check with your accountant. The insurance side is set out in insuring a commissioned oil painting.
The back of the canvas is the part collectors read first
Turn the painting over before you hang it. Three things live on the reverse:
- The stretcher-bar inscription. Name, title, month and year, city, dimensions — usually in pencil on the top bar. Pencil is traditional because graphite does not bleed through the canvas the way ink can. On a 16 × 20 in bar there is room for about forty characters; it is enough.
- The canvas stamp. Most cotton duck and linen is stamped or printed on the reverse with the mill, the weave and sometimes the weight — 10 oz cotton duck is a common portrait weight. The stamp is not authentication, but it dates the support.
- The studio label or reference number, if the studio uses one. It should match the certificate.
Museums read the back first: when the invoice is long gone, the reverse is often the only thing tying an object to a name and a year. Asking for “name, date and size on the top stretcher bar” costs a painter two minutes and costs you nothing.
Twenty minutes of documentation, the week it arrives
- Measure the canvas, not the frame, in inches and centimetres. Write both down.
- Take five photographs in daylight, no flash: straight on; raking light across the surface from about 30 degrees to show texture; the full back; a macro of the signature; a macro of any stamp or label.
- Name the files consistently — artist, title, size, year — so a stranger could find them.
- Put the set in two places: cloud storage and a folder you will still have in ten years. Email a copy to the studio too; a studio archive is a free second copy.
- Keep the invoice PDF in the same folder. Claims with a purchase document move in days; claims without one move in months.
Total cost: nothing. It roughly doubles the practical value of the certificate, because a certificate describes a painting and a photograph set proves which painting.
Provenance gaps, and what they honestly cost
A provenance gap is any break in the chain of ownership. In the resale market gaps lower confidence and therefore price; for family portraits they are normal, and a 1960s portrait of a grandmother often arrives with nothing at all.
Three things close a gap cheaply: the inscription on the back, dated family photographs showing the painting on a wall — the cheapest convincing evidence there is — and a conservator's condition report, which matters more on a ninety-year-old canvas than on a new one.
Be realistic about resale. A commissioned portrait is worth most to the family it depicts; on the open market a $1,200 painting with a complete paper trail might bring 40–60 percent of purchase price, and the same painting with nothing but the canvas might bring 20–30 percent, or fail to sell. The paperwork is not an investment strategy. It is for insurance, for inheritance, and for whoever inherits the painting and wants to know whose face they are looking at.
If you are giving the painting away
Gift the folder with the painting: certificate, invoice copy, photograph set, care sheet. Photocopy the invoice and keep the original. Gifting the canvas does not gift the copyright, so if the recipient intends to print cards or use the image commercially, that needs a written licence from the studio. For inheritance, one line is enough — a list of contents naming the painting, its size and its reference number. Without it, a four-way split of a single canvas turns into an argument that lasts longer than the painting took to make.
Six questions to ask before you pay the deposit
- Will the painting be signed on the front, and where?
- Will the back be inscribed with name, date and size?
- Does the certificate carry a reference number that matches my invoice?
- Do I receive a 300 dpi photograph of the finished painting?
- Who do I contact in ten years if I need the work confirmed?
- If it is a copy after a museum painting, does the paperwork say so plainly?
A studio that answers all six without hesitating is telling you how it builds the painting, not just how it files the paper. If you already have a photograph, the sizes and prices are published in full — 16 × 20 in single is $389, 20 × 24 in with two subjects is $699, 24 × 36 in single is $789 — and the quote form returns a fixed price and a date, usually within a day. Framing, hanging height and hardware are covered in framing an oil painting.
The short version
- A finished commission should include the painting, a signed certificate, a care sheet, the invoice, hanging hardware and a 300 dpi photograph.
- A signature is a statement, not a valuation. A certificate is evidence, not a legal title document, and it is unregulated in the US.
- The back of the canvas — inscription, mill stamp, label — is what identifies the painting in forty years. Ask for it.
- Twenty minutes of photographs plus the invoice in one folder is the cheapest insurance you will ever buy.
- Provenance does not make a portrait resell well; it makes it insurable, inheritable and explainable.