Gallery Commissions Divide, They Don't Add
Gallery commissions are quoted as a percentage of the retail price, and the arithmetic for setting a price around one is the single most misunderstood calculation in selling art.
Netting a target divides, it does not add
Suppose you want 800 in your hand from a piece and the gallery takes 50%. The instinct is to add the commission: 800 plus half of 800 is 1,200.
That is wrong, and it is wrong by a lot. At a 50% commission, a 1,200 retail price returns you 600. To net 800 you must price at 1,600. The split calculator does this inversion: retail equals target divided by your share, not target times one plus the commission.
What each commission level demands
To net 800 from a single piece:
- 20% commission → price at 1,000
- 30% → 1,142.86
- 40% → 1,333.33
- 50% → 1,600
- 60% → 2,000
Between a 20% platform fee and a 60% gallery split, the required price doubles for exactly the same take-home. That is the number to have in front of you when a gallery describes its terms.
Materials come out of your half
The commission is taken on the retail price, before your costs. On a 1,200 piece at 50%, your take-home is 600 and your profit after 200 of materials is 400 — a third of the sticker price.
Artists who price from materials and a modest markup, then add a gallery, often find the profit has disappeared entirely. The calculator reports take-home and profit separately for exactly this reason.
Price consistently across channels
The temptation is to charge less direct, since there is no commission to cover. Galleries generally prohibit it, and with good reason: undercutting the gallery on the same work damages both the relationship and the perceived value of the piece.
The convention is one retail price everywhere, with the channel absorbing its own cut. If that price is uncomfortable direct, it is the price that is wrong rather than the channel.
Read what the split applies to
Contracts vary in ways that matter more than the headline percentage. Some galleries deduct framing, shipping, photography or a share of promotion before splitting; some split the gross. A 40% commission on the gross can leave less than a 50% commission after costs.
Ask specifically what is deducted, in what order, and when you are paid. Payment terms after a sale are worth as much attention as the percentage.
What the percentage buys
A high commission is not automatically a bad deal. A gallery provides floor space, a collector list, promotion, framing and installation, and it carries the risk on work that does not sell.
The question is whether it reaches buyers you cannot reach, at prices you cannot command alone. Run the numbers both ways — the calculator makes it a two-minute comparison rather than a feeling.
Every commission rate, on one $1,200.00 piece
| Commission | Gallery keeps | You take home | After ${usd(200)} materials | Retail to net $800.00 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 0% | $0.00 | $1,200.00 | $1,000.00 | $800.00 |
| 20% | $240.00 | $960.00 | $760.00 | $1,000.00 |
| 30% | $360.00 | $840.00 | $640.00 | $1,142.86 |
| 40% | $480.00 | $720.00 | $520.00 | $1,333.33 |
| 50% | $600.00 | $600.00 | $400.00 | $1,600.00 |
| 60% | $720.00 | $480.00 | $280.00 | $2,000.00 |
At 50% the gallery's cut is $600.00 and your profit after materials is $400.00 — 33.3% of the retail price, on a piece you made.
The reverse calculation is the useful one
Pricing forwards — cost plus markup, then hand it to a gallery — is how artists end up netting less than their materials. Pricing backwards fixes it: decide what you need to net, and let the commission set the retail price.
To take home $800.00 at 50% commission the piece has to retail at $1,600.00. At 30% it is $1,142.86, and at 60% it is $2,000.00.
That is the number to walk into a conversation with. Not "what will you take", but "here is what it retails at, given what I need to net".
What the split does not include
Many contracts deduct framing, shipping, photography or card fees before splitting, which quietly moves the effective commission several points in the gallery's favour. Some deduct after. The two are materially different and the agreement rarely highlights which it is.
Read the order of operations in the consignment agreement, then put the real effective rate into the split calculator. A contract that reads as 40% and behaves as 50% costs $120.00 on this one piece.
The comparison nobody makes
Two galleries, one at 40% and one at 50%, and the second sells more. Work it in units: at 40% each sale nets you $520.00 and at 50% it nets $400.00.
The higher-commission gallery wins as soon as it sells about 1.3 times as often — which is a low bar, and far lower than most artists assume when they are choosing on the rate alone.
So the rate is the least interesting number in the contract. Ask instead how many pieces at your price point the gallery sold last year, and compare that to the commission you are worrying about.
One number to take to the meeting
$1,600.00 — the retail price this piece needs at 50% commission to net $800.00. Knowing it turns a negotiation about percentages into a conversation about whether the gallery can sell at that price, which is the only question that actually matters.
What to agree before the work goes on the wall
Four things, in writing: the commission percentage, whether it is taken before or after costs, who pays for framing and shipping, and how long the gallery holds the work before it comes back.
The third is the one that most often surprises people. Framing a $1,200.00 piece can be $150.00 or more, and whether that comes off the top or out of your share is the difference between $400.00 and $250.00 of profit — a 38% swing decided by a sentence nobody read.
The reverse figure is the one to memorise
Whatever you need to net, divide it by your share rather than adding the commission to it. $800.00 at 50% is $1,600.00, not $1,200.00 — a difference of $400.00 that catches people every time, because adding feels like the natural operation and division is the correct one.