How To Commission A Diptych Or Triptych

A diptych or triptych is not simply a large painting sliced into panels after the fact — treating it that way is the most common way a multi-panel commission goes wrong. The panel gap and cross-panel alignment need to be part of the brief from the start, not resolved at hanging time.

Decide the gap before the brief, not after

The space between panels — typically somewhere between 3cm and 10cm depending on the wall and the composition — changes how continuous or deliberately fragmented the finished piece reads. A narrow, consistent gap reads as one continuous image interrupted by the panel edge; a wider gap reads as three related but distinct compositions. This decision belongs in the brief, since it affects how the composition itself is designed to flow — or deliberately not flow — across the break.

Composition has to work both ways

A well-designed multi-panel work should read convincingly as a single composition from a distance and hold up as individual panels up close — elements shouldn't rely entirely on being read together to make sense, in case a panel is ever rehung separately or one panel needs to travel or be reframed independently down the line.

Practically, on the wall

Confirm the wall's total width including the gaps before finalising individual panel dimensions, and measure for level across all panels together, not one at a time — a small error compounds visibly across three panels in a way it wouldn't on one canvas. The full commission process — brief, proposal, four-to-eight-week studio time, delivery — runs the same as a single-panel work; [start the brief](/commission) specifying the multi-panel format from the outset.