As a rule of thumb, choose a picture light roughly half to two-thirds the width of the frame: a 40cm light suits a picture about 60–80cm wide, a 23cm light one about 35–45cm. Fix it just above the frame, with enough reach to clear the frame's depth and carry light down the whole picture. Rechargeable picture lights need no electrician; wired ones need a fused spur or wall-light point fitted by a registered electrician. For art, use warm 2700–3000K light at CRI 90 or better.
A picture light is the most direct compliment you can pay a painting: it says this one matters. It is also surprisingly easy to get wrong. Too small, and it lights a stripe across the top of the frame like a reading lamp that has lost its book. Too big, and the light becomes the thing on the wall everyone looks at. Then comes the wiring question, which is usually where the plan quietly dies — nobody wants to chase a cable through freshly painted plaster for one print.
Here is how to choose one that fits the picture, the wall and the way you actually live.
How big should a picture light be?
The long-standing rule of thumb: the light should be roughly half to two-thirds the width of the frame. Wider than the frame looks top-heavy and throws light onto the wall either side. Much narrower, and the light pools in the middle while the corners fall away into gloom.
Measure the frame, not the canvas — the frame is what the eye reads as the object, and the light needs to look in proportion to it. Treat the rule as a guide rather than a law: a tall portrait-format piece can take a light nearer its full width, and a long, shallow landscape can get away with half.
| Frame width | Light width (½ to ⅔) | What fits |
|---|---|---|
| 30cm | 15–20cm | A small single-bulb light |
| 40cm | 20–27cm | Maison (23cm) |
| 50cm | 25–33cm | Between sizes: Maison a touch under, Galera a touch over |
| 60cm | 30–40cm | Galera (40cm) |
| 80cm | 40–53cm | Galera (40cm) |
| 100cm | 50–67cm | A wider bar light |
| 150cm and over | 75cm+ | Two lights spaced evenly, or ceiling spots |
Our picture lights cover the two sizes most British walls actually carry: the modest print or oil around 40cm across, and the more substantial piece above a fireplace or sofa.
How high should you mount it, and how far should it reach?
Hang the picture first, where you would hang it anyway, then fix the light to the wall just above the top of the frame. The head should sit a few centimetres above the top edge and angle down, so the beam lands on the picture rather than skimming the frame or lighting the ceiling. A wall fixing is steadier than one clipped to the frame, and keeps the weight off the picture hook.
Then check the reach — how far the light's head projects from the wall. Subtract the depth of the frame, and what is left is how far in front of the picture surface the light actually sits. More distance lets the beam travel further down the picture; too little gives the classic bright top and dim bottom. A gentle gradient is traditional and rather handsome. A picture that goes dark below the halfway mark is not.
As a working guide, flat frames and moderately sized pictures are well served by a compact reach. Deep box frames, chunky gilt mouldings and tall portrait pieces want a longer arm. The Galera projects 13cm; the Maison's swan neck reaches 22cm and angles up and down, which is why it copes with deeper frames.
Galera Rechargeable Picture Light · 40cm, USB-C
Forty centimetres wide with a 13cm reach, so by the rule of thumb it suits frames of roughly 60–80cm. USB-C rechargeable, with screws and wall plugs in the box — no electrician, no cable in the wall.
Rechargeable or wired: which picture light should you choose?
This is the decision that actually decides the project.
A rechargeable picture light is self-contained: battery, LED, USB-C socket. You screw it to the wall and you are done — no electrician, no cable, no making good. It is the obvious answer for renters (more in our guide to lighting for renters), for walls with no wiring behind them, and for anyone who rehangs the room every couple of years. The trade-off is charging. How often depends on brightness and hours of use, but picture lights tend to be on for an evening at a time, which is exactly the kind of duty a battery suits.
A wired picture light is connected to the mains permanently. That means an electrician fitting either a fused spur (a fused connection unit) or a wall-light point, and chasing the cable into the wall above the frame. Do it when you are redecorating anyway and the cable disappears for good. In England, some electrical work is notifiable under Part P of the Building Regulations, and Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland have their own rules — use a registered electrician, who will know which applies and certify the work. The reward is no charging, ever.
There is a middle route — plug-in picture lights with a flex to a socket — but a cable running down the wall beneath a painting is hard to love.
| Rechargeable (Galera) | Wired (Maison) | |
|---|---|---|
| Fitting | Screws and wall plugs, supplied; DIY | Hardwired by a qualified electrician |
| Power | USB-C, cable supplied | Mains, via fused spur or wall-light point |
| Light source | Integrated LED | One E14 bulb, up to 7W, not included |
| Width / reach | 40cm / 13cm | 23cm / 22cm |
| Best for | Renters, finished walls, art that moves | Redecorating, a picture that is staying put |
| Price | £55 | £51 |
Maison Picture Light · swan neck, E14
A 23cm polished brass head on a swan neck that reaches 22cm from the wall and angles up and down — right for smaller pictures and deeper frames. Hardwired by an electrician, with a rocker switch on the base and your choice of E14 bulb.
What colour temperature and CRI should a picture light be?
Warm, and truthful. Most homes light art at 2700K to match the rest of the room — our room-by-room colour temperature guide explains why — while 3000K reads a little cleaner and suits cooler palettes, photographs and works on paper. Avoid anything bluer: 4000K turns an oil painting into a reproduction of itself.
Colour rendering matters more here than anywhere else in the house, because the whole point is looking at colour. At CRI 80, reds sink and skin tones go grey; at 90 and above, the painting looks the way it did when you bought it. (Our CRI guide explains the number.) With a bulb-based light like the Maison you choose the bulb, so pick an E14 LED marked CRI 90 or higher. With an integrated LED, the light source is the maker's choice rather than yours — one genuine argument for the bulb-based option if the picture is precious.
Will a picture light damage a painting?
The worry comes from old tungsten picture lights, which ran hot and sat close to the canvas. LEDs are a different animal: they emit very little ultraviolet and very little heat in their beam. For a domestic picture lit for a few hours in the evening, an LED picture light is not the thing to fear — direct sunlight is.
If you own something genuinely valuable or fragile — watercolours, old prints, textiles — hang it out of the sun, keep the light off when nobody is looking, and ask a conservator rather than a lighting shop.
How do you light a picture behind glass without glare?
Glass is a mirror with ambitions. Light leaves glazing at the same angle it arrives, so the question is simply where the reflection goes. A picture light mounted close above the frame strikes the glass at a steep angle and bounces its reflection down towards the floor, well out of your eyeline. Trouble starts when the head is pushed too far out or tilted back towards the room: the reflection rises to standing eye level, and you see a bright bar instead of the photograph.
The fixes, in order: angle the head down more steeply and keep it close; if that is not enough, have the picture reglazed with anti-reflective glass, which framers stock for exactly this. If the glare comes from a window or a ceiling light opposite rather than the picture light, tilting the top of the frame forward a degree or two sends those reflections to the floor instead.
Where else does a picture light work?
A picture light is really a small, shielded, downward wash — useful well beyond paintings. Over a run of bookshelves, it turns spines into texture. Above a headboard, a rechargeable one gives a soft wash over the bed with no wiring behind it. Over a sideboard, a mirror or open kitchen shelving, it does the accent layer's job in a single clean line.
Because the Galera needs no cable, it is the easy one to experiment with: try it in three places before you settle on one. For more wire-free options, see our guide to cordless table lamps, or browse cordless and rechargeable lighting.
