To refuse to pay for this commission?

I wouldn’t pay her. And I would remind her of your agreement.

You said you didn’t need to put a signature on my painting. On that basis, I gave you the commission. You showed me a picture of the painting that looked amazing. But when you sent it to me, you had added your signature, which totally ruins the painting. As I and many others have told you….
If you can paint out the signature completely, I am happy to pay you. Your art work is fantastic. But if you can’t then I am not prepared to pay for something that I don’t like, won’t be able to display and specifically asked you not to do.

She went against the agreement you made…and you are sisters! You don’t need a signed contract!
She has broken your agreement and unless she can put it right tough luck. Stand firm.

Nope - that’s not what the customer ordered/specified. Makes no difference that she is your sister. She gets paid once she removes the silly signature. As an artist, she can do that.

Paint over in a colour of your choice, then show it to her, simple.

This is why you never do business with family.

She can paint over it?

I think the issue here might be that you meant no (massive signature) as in you didnt want a signature at all as part of the artwork (fine on the back, side etc but not in the picture) and she read (no massive) signature, as in signature fine, in red fine, on the front fine, as long as it's not massive, which is subjective.

However having seen the work if you ask for it to be removed then she should work round that to deliver work that suits the customer.

Next time avoid family for these things!

It's not what you commissioned if you specifically said not to include a massive signature so YANBU not to pay imo. Though maybe you should have specified exactly what size signature would be approved before she started.

I don't know whether she's arrogant, bonkers or both??
I definitely wouldn't pay. There's loads of talented artists crying out for work. Very odd indeed.

I'm also dying to see some of her work.

She obviously has a large ego, to do that. She verbally agreed not to do the large signature, but lied to you! Just tell her you're notnpaying until she sorts it out. Do not accept it.

Even Monet didn’t do this! Or Van Gogh.

are you sure the paintings are that good , OP? Perhaps the signature is hiding the bit where the shoulder meets the top of the leg, always hard to get right? Or the accident where someone leant on it before it was dry ( easily done) 🤡

Does she advertise her work on social media?

This thread has made me think of the magnificent Pet Portraits By Hercule on Facebook.

Now I'm assuming that you chose her for family reasons.

As the OP says, she said she WASN'T going to use her and was talked in to the fact that the sister would do it as required - and at £200, she's hardly doing it at 'mates rates', is she ... ?!

Glad to see I'm not the only one who really, really, really wants to see these paintings!

This is why I never get involved with friends and family for business stuff YABU to imagine that a person you complained about for doing this and whom you considered was already unreasonable was going to be different for you. You should pay as a fine for you failure to see this as it was so obvious.

@MikStone
Try me next time!

£200 is very cheap for a commissioned portrait!

It's normal for artists to sign their work. But they normally do it in a colour which corresponds to the painting, fairly small, in the corner.

When you say massive do you mean across the picture or just very large under the picture?

You have 3 options so far as I can see...

1. pay to keep the peace with your sister. In which case I wouldn't accept the painting or display it if you don't like it. Apologise that you should have gone with your instincts but you thought you'd made your feelings clear.

2. Ask her to fix the painting. Tell her that you have no objection to her signing her work but you aren't prepared to pay for a stylised autograph. Tell her to look at how vincent van gogh signed his paintings small writing, subtle position, colours often chosen to blend in with the picture. Be clear precisely what you are prepared to accept. e.g. a signature in black which fits in a square no more than 1" by 1" in the bottom left corner. Pay if and only if she can do this.

3. Just don't pay her, don't accept the picture. If and when she brings it up say something like 'Professionals get paid for their time, and do what the customers want. Hobbyists can do whatever they please, but can struggle to get anyone to buy their work.'

All of these approaches have pros and cons.

I feel like I need a diagram if not a picture of the actual thing 😂

Wrong. The OP says:

"anyway when I asked her to do mine I was actually looking around for someone else to do it and when she asked why I hadn’t asked her I told her I don’t like the huge signatures she does. She laughed and said “I don’t have to do the signature! ...So I agreed for her to do it as long as she doesn’t put a massive signature on it.”

'Massive signature' in this context refers to the signature as a whole (which is massive) rather than any signature that can be describe as either small or massive or anything in between.

You asked her not to do the signature. She did so went against what you wanted so nope wouldn’t be paying

its time she learnt a life lesson, people don’t want her signature over the painting, either she learns or she stops getting commissions.

if she can’t/wont paint over it then i would not be paying and would get someone else

If the sister wants to include her signature in an artwork, whether it is big, small or gigantic, that is entirely her own decision as an artist. But if a piece is commissioned to be a certain way and she accepted the commission and expects payment for it, then she has to do it that way.

Was it like this?