Creating and Selling Art with Rider-Waite Tarot Deck?

May 6, 2024 5:47 AM

I'm an oil painter and intend to paint the illustrations from the Rider-Waite tarot deck to sell directly to potential clients. I'm uncertain if there are copyright or trademark limitations to redistributing portrayals of these images. Please inform me (if any) appropriate channels and formalities to venture to avoid any legal repercussions in the future.
posted by dea to Media & Arts (5 answers total)

Best answer: In the United States, the deck became part of the public domain in 1966 (publication + 28 years + renewed 28 years), and thus has been available for use by American artists for numerous different media projects. - says wikipedia.
posted by SaltySalticid at 6:03 AM on May 6 [11 favorites]

Best answer: When this is finished please post to Projects! I would love to see the results.
posted by terrapin at 6:07 AM on May 6 [21 favorites]

I'm not an expert, but my understanding is that the line drawing of the RWS cards is in the public domain, but that many/most of the recoloring are under copyright. So, you could sell a print of the line-drawing, or a print of your own color treatment of it, but you couldn't sell a print of (for instance) a card from the US Games Centennial Edition, even though aspects of the image are in the public domain.
posted by duien at 2:22 PM on May 6

Best answer: It's important that you know that all of the original artwork for that deck was performed by Pamela Colman Smith -- which is why many people now refer to the deck as Rider-Waite-Smith. You can help to unerase the legacy of this long-erased woman artist. :)
posted by heatherlogan at 4:35 PM on May 6 [17 favorites]

Also Rider was a company. It's really the Waite-Smith (or vice versa) deck published by the Rider Company. The Smith Waite Centennial edition apparently gets back closer to the original colors that Smith originally used and not the ones simplified for what was easy to print at the time it was printed. Can't wait to see the edition you take this, OP!
posted by slidell at 7:16 PM on May 6 [1 favorite]