The art of hanging art - Vertical alignment


	the art of hanging art [ the room ] [ vertical alignment ] [ groups ] [ mixture ] [ practical ] [ lighting ] [ textile ] [ sculptures ] [ links ] [ feedback ] [ home ]

	vertical alignment

	There are three alternative vertical painting alignments: the lower line, the middle line and the upper line. The lower line can also be broken.




1. Lower line	Paintings are normally hung with a common lower line. It is appropriate for larger and medium-sized paintings. Often, an appropriate height of the lower line is in the level of your hips, i e about 80 to 100 cm above the floor. Another rule says that the average centre of the paintings should be on a height of about 146 cm. It will give the spectator possibility to view the painting standing at two metres distance. Large paintings motivates lower line, small paintings or large room heights leads to higher lower line. The distance must be rather large, often 50 to 100 cm for middle-sized paintings. In some cases, as for a group of paintings of the same size, the distance can be as small as 15 to 25 cm.






2. Middle line	For paintings with varying size and format, the common middle line is best. Place the paintings in a rhythm, large-small-large-small, standing-lying-standing-lying etc. Heights as described above.






3. Upper line	Avoid a common upper line. Use it just for very large paintings, for hanging textiles or in narrow corridors.






4. Broken lower line	An interesting combination, adding some variation to the wall, is to displace one of the paintings from the common lower line and adding another one on top of it.




© J Anderson	Paintings by van Gogh, Modigliani, Belle, Gaugain.




	Note! This is a non profit site. All images found within theese pages are found on the internet at sites that did not show any copyrights. They are believed to be public domain. If you own the copyright to any of these images, please provide the copyright info and I will remove them as soon as possibly.