Can artists make copies of their sold original art?

I would have thought so. They have copyright of their work and so can do what they like with it. It’s also not unusual for an artist to make a number of very similar works. All you bought was the canvas with the image or work on it you have no rights as to what else the copyright holder does with image.

Upon what was your “understanding” based?

Assumption or did the artist say something to you directly? If so. what exactly was said ? And it’s important to be exact.

Without a document granting you the copyright, i.e. exclusive rights to the image, anybody can copy it anytime they want. Especially the artist.

Yes absolutely. An artist can make reproductions of their work at any time for any reason unless your purchase specifically contracted for exclusive rights to buyer.

But hey… You WANT the artist to make copies. It only publicizes the original, making it more valuable. Everything else is a reprint. The original owner investment rises exponentially because the copies are circulated. It’s a win for both the artist and original owner.

Encourage it.

Yes, definitely, unless it was sold to you with a contract stating that no prints or copies would be made. They can sell prints or they can re-paint the picture from scratch.

Thank you everyone. Really appreciate your taking the time to answer my question. For RealEyesRealizeRealLies (great name!) what you said makes buying an original exciting, however, now I am wondering if the ‘original’ I purchased was a re-painted copy…how is one to know?

Wait a minute… For some reason I thought you were talking about photographic copies for print making. Not replication paintings.

When the original painter replicates their own work, by making a duplicate painting, each replication is still considered to be an original artwork. One is not any more or less valuable than the other. But when that work is replicated by another artist, or duplicated photographically, those are typically less valuable to the collector.

Often times a gallery will have sold a painting, but another buyer wants one. It should be no problem for anyone if the original painter is consigned to replicate his own work… often in a different size to accommodate the wishes of the new buyer. It’s still an original.

Alternatively wait til the artist dies. That way you know they won’t be producing any replicas.

It’s quite common for an artist to “re-do” a painting. Monet did “waterlilies” 250 times over a period of 30 years.

@downtide This is why I followed this question… when an artist paints the same subject over and over and over again, this is not reproduction. As @RealEyesRealizeRealLies said above, each painting is an original. Many, many famous artists have painted series of this kind, and no one accuses them of devaluing their work in doing so:

Van Gogh does sunflowers

Cezanne does Mont Sainte-Victoire

Rembrandt does himself