French standard sizes for oil paintings

Harvest near Auvers (1890), a size 30 canvas, by Vincent van Gogh.

French standard sizes for oil paintings refers to a series of different sized canvases for use by artists. The sizes were fixed in the 19th century. Most artists, not only French, used this standard, as it was—and still is—supported by the main suppliers of artist materials.

The main separation from size 0 (toile de 0) to size 120 (toile de 120) is divided in separate runs for faces/portraits (figure), landscapes (paysage) and marines (marine) which more or less keep the diagonal. That is, a figure 0 corresponds in height to a paysage 1 and a marine 2.^[1]

Numéro	Figure (cm)	Paysage (cm)	Marine (cm)
0	18 x 14	18 x 12	18 x 10
1	22 x 16	22 x 14	22 x 12
2	24 x 19	24 x 16	24 x 14
3	27 x 22	27 x 19	27 x 16
4	33 x 24	33 x 22	33 x 19
5	35 x 27	35 x 24	35 x 22
6	41 x 33	41 x 27	41 x 24
8	46 x 38	46 x 33	46 x 27
10	55 x 46	55 x 38	55 x 33
12	61 x 50	61 x 46	61 x 38
15	65 x 54	65 x 50	65 x 46
20	73 x 60	73 x 54	73 x 50
25	81 x 65	81 x 60	81 x 54
30	92 x 73	92 x 65	92 x 60
40	100 x 81	100 x 73	100 x 65
50	116 x 89	116 x 81	116 x 73
60	130 x 97	130 x 89	130 x 81
80	146 x 114	146 x 97	146 x 89
100	162 x 130	162 x 114	162 x 97
120	195 x 130	195 x 114	195 x 97

References

1. Haaf, Beatrix (1987), "Industriell vorgrundierte Malleinen. Beiträge zur Entwicklungs-, Handels- und Materialgeschichte", Zeitschrift für Kunsttechnologie und Konservierung 1: 7–71