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The Hanged Man

Name: The Hanged Man
Brand: The Hermetica
SKU: PA-00439

Pamela Colman Smith, for A. E. Waite, 1909

The HermeticaPA-00439Tear sheet

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No print size passed the check for this piece: at 8 x 10 in, Wrong shape: a 29% crop. We would rather show it than sell a soft print.

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A man hangs upside down from a living T-shaped tree, one leg crossed behind the other, a halo of light around his calm face. Pamela Colman Smith drew him in 1909 as the card of suspension and reversal — the world seen from a deliberately inverted place, and no distress in it. Smith completed all seventy-eight images in a matter of months for a flat fee, and history hung her own name out of sight for the better part of a century. Notice the golden radiance around his head, and the small 'PCS' monogram set into the lower corner of the plate.

Maker: Pamela Colman Smith, for A. E. Waite
Date: 1909
Medium of the original: Plate
Original held by: Published London, 1909 · scan: Wikimedia Commons
Credit: Published London, 1909 · scan: Wikimedia Commons
Rights: Public domain, verified
Catalogue number: PA-00439

Before a size goes on sale, the file is measured against it: pixels per inch at that size, how much of the picture a crop would lose, tone and sharpness. A size that fails is not offered, so there is nothing to choose wrong.

How the print check works

Sizes withheld
Size	Why
8 x 10 in	Wrong shape: a 29% crop
8 x 12 in	Wrong shape: a 15% crop
11 x 14 in	Wrong shape: a 28% crop
12 x 16 in	Wrong shape: a 24% crop
12 x 18 in	Wrong shape: a 15% crop
16 x 20 in	Wrong shape: a 29% crop
16 x 24 in	Wrong shape: a 15% crop
18 x 24 in	Wrong shape: a 24% crop
20 x 30 in	Wrong shape: a 15% crop
24 x 30 in	Wrong shape: a 29% crop
24 x 36 in	Wrong shape: a 15% crop
30 x 40 in	Wrong shape: a 24% crop
36 x 48 in	Wrong shape: a 24% crop
40 x 60 in	Wrong shape: a 15% crop