Mona Lisa

The story of Mona Lisa

You already know the face. What surprises people who see the real thing in the Louvre is how small it is, how dim, and how far away the crowd keeps you. That is the argument for a print. Leonardo began the portrait around 1503, most likely of Lisa Gherardini, the wife of a Florentine silk merchant, and kept it with him until he died in France. Up close the famous smile is built out of shadow rather than line, the eyes follow you because there are no hard edges to fix them, and the landscape behind her dissolves into blue-green haze, two horizons that do not quite match.

In a room, the Mona Lisa is warm and low-key. The dominant tones are amber, olive, deep brown, and that cool aquamarine in the distance, so it sits comfortably with wood, leather, brass, and warm white walls. It suits a study, a hallway, a dining room, or a bedroom, and it belongs in traditional and classic-modern interiors alike. Because the original is a modest 30 × 21 in, the Medium at 16 × 23.8 in is close to the real scale and the most honest choice. If you want her to command a wall, the Large at 24 × 35.8 in and the Extra Large at 36 × 53.6 in are both offered.

Leonardo's other great portrait, Lady with an Ermine, makes a striking pair. Girl with a Pearl Earring is the other face people hang beside her, and The Last Supper gives you the artist at his most monumental. More from Leonardo da Vinci.

We print from a public-domain photograph of the Louvre panel in our own studio; the varnish has yellowed over five centuries, and we do not artificially brighten it.