Prints and editions
What you get for €35
7 min read ▪ 29 August 2026
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A signed print is the cheapest thing in this studio and the most misunderstood. Here is what is in the tube, in the order you meet it, including what it is not.
What do you get for €35?
A sheet of paper, rolled in a tube. On it is a printed reproduction of one painting from the series, signed by hand on the back after printing, from an edition of no more than fifty. What it is not is the painting: that stays one of one, on canvas, at €250 and up.
- Signed by hand on the back, printed once. The edition is never reprinted.
- €35 buys a sheet of paper with a signature on it, before shipping. It does not buy paint, canvas or a unique object.
- One size: 100 × 80 cm, portrait. Printed full colour to the edge of the sheet, so there is no white border around the image.
- Nine paintings have an edition, and most of what was printed has already gone — the signed prints are here.
What arrives, in the order you meet it
A tube. Prints ship from the Netherlands within two working days, rolled, because paper travels safely that way and a tube protects the edges better than a flat pack. An oil painting on a stretcher is never rolled; a paper print always is. That difference in packaging is covered in full in how the work is packed and shipped.
Inside the tube is one sheet. Unroll it face up on a clean flat surface, weight the corners with something soft, and leave it a day or two to relax. Do not try to reverse the curl by rolling it the other way, and do not press it flat yourself. A framer will do that without creasing it.
The sheet measures 100 × 80 cm, portrait, and the image is printed full colour right up to its edges — there is no white border around it. On the sheet: the printed image of one painting, edge to edge. On the back: a signature written by hand. No certificate comes with it; that goes with an original painting.
It arrives unframed. That is the practical difference between the two products: a canvas hangs as it is, and a sheet of paper does not. Framing is a separate decision with a separate cost, and it changes where the print can go — see how to display the work at home.
The ceiling of fifty
Fifty sheets per painting, printed in one run, and that ceiling was set before the first one was sold.
Fifty is the ceiling of the edition, not the count of what is in the drawer. That sentence does more work than anything else on this page. What the shop lists as available is what is left of that run, not the size of it. Nine editions exist, and most of what was printed has already gone.
The sheets are not numbered one by one, so there is no fraction in a corner telling you which one you have. Every sheet in an edition came off the press in the same run, on the same day, which is why a number would not have told you much anyway. What separates a limited edition from an open one is not a number written on paper but the moment the quantity was fixed, which is the subject of open edition against limited edition.
The signature
Written by hand after printing. Not part of the printed image.
That is the whole distinction between a signed print and a poster of the same picture. A poster can carry a reproduction of a signature; it is printed along with everything else and it means nothing. A hand signature is added afterwards, sheet by sheet, which means the sheet in front of you passed through the painter’s hands after it came off the press.
The convention among printmakers is pencil in the margin below the image. These sheets are printed edge to edge, with no margin to sign in, so the signature goes on the back. What a signature proves is provenance: where the sheet came from and whose hand was on it. What it does not prove is value, and that is a separate argument, made in are signed prints worth buying.
Edition and signature
Two words appear on every print listing in this shop. Here is what each one is, what it is not, and why it should matter to you.
| What it is | What it is not | Why it matters to you | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Edition | A run printed once, capped at fifty | A guarantee that fifty were printed | The edition cannot grow later |
| Signature | Written by hand on the back, after printing | Part of the printed image | The painter handled this sheet |
Read the middle column twice. Every misunderstanding people have about prints lives in there.
What €35 does not buy
This is the part most shops leave out, and it is the only part that actually answers the question.
Not paint, and not canvas. The original is oil on stretched canvas, built up over several weeks. A print is ink on paper. Standing in front of the two, nobody would confuse them.
Not a unique object. Up to fifty people can own the same image. The canvas stays one of one and will never become an edition.
Not a discount on the painting. €35 against €250 to €900 is not the same object at two prices. It is two products doing different jobs, which is why the choice between them is a real choice and not a budget question.
Not a frame, and not an investment. Framing comes on top. What a sheet of paper is worth in ten years is not something anyone here will promise you.
Buying it is the easy part.
What a print is for is the thing the painter says on every print listing: it exists so the image can hang somewhere the original never will.
When the print is the better buy
A wall you do not own. A rented flat, a room you will leave, an office. Thirty-five euro on a wall you are going to hand back is a different decision from six hundred.
A room you are not sure about yet. Hang it, live with it for a month, and find out whether you keep looking. That test is described in where the line sits between erotic art and pornography, and it works better on a wall than in a browser tab.
A first purchase. If this would be the first piece of art you have bought, a print is the low-stakes version of exactly the same decision.
And when only the canvas will do: when you want the object rather than the image. Oil on canvas at full size does something in a room that a sheet of paper does not attempt. The original paintings are here, unframed and ready to hang.
Some of the nine editions are close to the end of their run — Elisa (Appetite) among them. Each listing shows what is left of its edition.
The €35 and the €250 to €900 are listed against each other, with what each one buys, on what erotic art costs.
Questions people ask
What does “limited edition” mean on a print?
It means the number of prints was fixed before the first one was sold, and that printing stops there. It does not mean the number is small: an edition of five hundred is still a limited edition. Here the cap is fifty per painting, each edition is printed once, and none of them is reprinted.
Are the prints numbered?
No. The edition is capped at fifty per painting and printed once, but the sheets are not numbered one by one, so there is no fraction in the corner. Fifty is the ceiling of the run rather than a count of what is still available; what each listing shows is what is left.
Where does an artist sign a print?
By convention in pencil in the margin below the image. These sheets are printed edge to edge and have no margin, so the signature goes on the back. The point is that it is added by hand after printing rather than reproduced along with the image, which is what separates a signed print from a poster of the same picture.
What do you actually get for €35?
A sheet of paper 100 × 80 cm, portrait, rolled in a tube, carrying a printed reproduction of one painting in full colour to the edge of the sheet, and a signature written by hand on the back. It arrives unframed, and shipping is charged on top of the €35. It is not the painting, and it is not sold as one: the original stays a single canvas at €250 and up.
