How to Commission an Original Painting: A Guide for First-Time Collectors
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There is a moment — standing in front of a painting that moves you, in a gallery or a friend's home or somewhere you didn't expect — when a thought arrives quietly: I would like to live with something like this.
That thought is the beginning of a commission. The rest is simply a conversation.
If you have never commissioned an original painting before, the process can feel opaque. Who do you approach? What do you say? How do you know what you want? How much does it cost, and how long will it take?
This guide answers all of those questions plainly. Because commissioning a landscape painting — or any original work — should feel like a privilege, not a bureaucratic exercise.
What Does It Mean to Commission a Painting?
To commission a painting is to invite an artist to create a work specifically for you — your subject, your scale, your space, your feeling. Unlike buying a painting that already exists, a commission is collaborative. It begins with a conversation and ends with something that belongs entirely to your world.
The best commissions are not complicated. They start with something simple: a place you love, a view that stays with you, a feeling you want to carry into your home.
Step 1: Start With a Feeling, Not a Specification
Most people approach commissioning the wrong way — they try to describe what they want in precise visual terms before they know what they feel. Forget dimensions and colour codes for a moment.
Ask yourself: What do I want this painting to do in my life?
Do you want to be returned, every morning, to a place that matters to you — a mountain you stood on, a valley you walked through with someone you loved? Do you want a room to feel more still, more expansive, more alive? Do you want the art on your wall to be a conversation, not a backdrop?
These are the questions that matter first. The visual decisions follow naturally.
Step 2: Choose Your Artist Carefully
Commissioning is a relationship. You are trusting someone with something personal — a memory, a landscape, an emotional atmosphere — and asking them to translate it into a physical object you will live with for years.
This means style matters enormously. Not just whether you like the work aesthetically, but whether the artist's sensibility aligns with yours. Look for someone whose existing paintings already contain the quality you're searching for. You cannot commission depth into an artist who hasn't found it.
For landscape commissions specifically, consider whether the artist has a genuine relationship with the subject matter — whether they have stood in the landscapes they paint, or whether they are working from photographs of places they have never visited. The difference is visible.
I paint the Swiss Alps because I live here, in Zermatt, steps from the Matterhorn. The light I capture is the light I wake up to. That intimacy is not something you can manufacture from a desk.
Step 3: Make the First Approach
Reaching out is simpler than it feels. A good artist will not require a polished brief. Share what you have: a photograph of a place that means something to you, the dimensions of the wall you have in mind, a few words about the mood you want the painting to carry, any existing art or interiors you love for colour reference.
You don't need all of these. Sometimes the beginning is just: "The Matterhorn at dawn. I've never forgotten it." That is enough. From that first message, the artist will guide the conversation.
Step 4: Understand the Process
Vision consultation: A short conversation — by email, phone, or video — to align on subject, scale, palette, and mood. I share reference images from my archive and we establish the direction together.
Proposal: A written confirmation of the dimensions, medium, timeline, and investment. No commitment until you have read it and are ready.
Deposit and creation begins: A 50% deposit reserves your place in the studio. I paint in mixed-media oils on gallery-wrapped canvas, working in Zermatt with the mountain as a constant presence. I share progress photographs at key stages.
Final approval and delivery: When the painting is complete, I send detailed images for your approval before it leaves the studio. Every original ships worldwide in specialist art packaging, with a signed certificate of authenticity and a personal letter describing the work.
What Does a Commission Cost?
Pricing reflects the size of the canvas and the complexity of the composition. As a guide, commissions begin at CHF 1,200 for intimate small-format works (approximately 40×50 cm) and scale with dimensions and scope. Worldwide shipping and the certificate of authenticity are always included — there are no hidden additions.
How Long Does It Take?
Most commissions are completed within 6 to 10 weeks from the date the deposit is received. Complex large-format works may take longer — this is always communicated clearly in the initial proposal. The work is finished when it is right, not when a deadline demands it.
The Thing Nobody Tells You
The paintings that matter most to their owners are almost never the ones that were planned to the last detail. They are the ones where someone said, simply: "This place changed something in me. Can you paint it?"
Give an artist something true, and they will give you something that lasts.
Begin Your Commission
If you have been thinking about commissioning an original landscape painting — a custom Matterhorn painting, an alpine scene, or something entirely personal — the door is open.
Reach out directly. Tell me where you are, what you love, and what you're dreaming of. The rest begins from there.