21 July 2026
Is it public domain? One table for 16 artists
Van Gogh, Monet, Klimt, Matisse, Kawase — the public-domain status of 16 collected artists in one honest table, under both copyright clocks, including the three artists whose answer is still 'not yet'.
Every week someone asks the same question about a different name: is this artist public domain? The answer always comes down to two clocks — and because most pages online only mention one of them, most answers are half-wrong.
So here is the whole thing in one table: every artist we curate, plus three that collectors keep asking about, under both systems. EU & Türkiye run life-plus-seventy: protection ends 70 years after the artist’s death. The United States runs a publication clock: works first published before 1931 are public domain there as of 2026, and that line moves forward each January.
We maintain this table because we have to — every print we sell depends on it. Dates come from the same verification work behind our artist guides, where each name below links to the long answer.
| Artist | Died | EU & Türkiye | United States |
|---|---|---|---|
| Leonardo da Vinci | 1519 | Public domain | Public domain — predates copyright itself |
| Vincent van Gogh | 1890 | Public domain | Public domain |
| Georges Seurat | 1891 | Public domain | Public domain |
| Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec | 1901 | Public domain | Public domain |
| Paul Cézanne | 1906 | Public domain | Public domain |
| Edgar Degas | 1917 | Public domain | Public domain |
| Gustav Klimt | 1918 | Public domain | Public domain |
| Pierre-Auguste Renoir | 1919 | Public domain | Public domain |
| Amedeo Modigliani | 1920 | Public domain | Public domain |
| Claude Monet | 1926 | Public domain | Public domain |
| Alphonse Mucha | 1939 | Public domain since 2010 | Pre-1931 works only — the classic Paris posters qualify |
| Leonetto Cappiello | 1942 | Public domain since 2013 | Pre-1931 works only — his late 1930s posters don’t, yet |
| Ohara Koson | 1945 | Public domain since 2016 | Prints published before 1931 only |
| Henri Matisse | 1954 | Public domain since 1 January 2025 | Only works published before 1931 — much of his output stays protected into the 2040s |
| Hiroshi Yoshida | 1950 | Public domain in most terms since 2021 | Pre-1931 prints only |
| Kawase Hasui | 1957 | Not yet — 1 January 2028 | Pre-1931 prints only |
How to read the bottom three rows
The first thirteen artists are the ones we curate, restore and sell — each row links to a full guide with the reasoning and the caveats. The last three are the honest part of the table.
Matisse is the newest arrival: the EU clock ran out on 1 January 2025. But arrival in Europe is not arrival everywhere — under the American publication rule, everything he published from 1931 onward stays protected there for years yet, work by work. An artist can be public domain and not-public-domain at the same time, depending on which work and which country you’re standing in.
Kawase Hasui is the waiting room. He died in 1957, so the life-plus-seventy countries release his work on 1 January 2028 — a date we have circled, because his snow scenes belong next to Koson’s herons the moment the clock allows it.
Yoshida sits between the two: cleared under the standard term, with tail ends still running in a country or two with longer historical rules.
None of these three appears in our collections today. That’s the table doing its job — the same gate that lets the first thirteen in keeps these three out, and we’d rather show you the gate than pretend it doesn’t exist.
Two cautions before you use this table
First: for the 20th-century names, “public domain” is a per-work statement, not a blanket one. A Cappiello poster from 1903 and one from 1938 sit on opposite sides of the American line — which is why we verify every single piece before listing it, not every artist.
Second: this is general information current as of mid-2026, not legal advice. Terms differ by country and change over time — the US line moves every January, and we update this table when it does. For a commercial decision that depends on a row above, talk to a lawyer in your jurisdiction.