Mabef · Made in Italy · Since 1948
Two paintings. One easel. No wall required.
The only double sided easel Mabef make. Two independent canvas holders, two trays, and a footprint the size of a bar stool, built for exhibitions, shows and studios that work in pairs.

Every other easel in the world has a back. It faces one way, so it lives against a wall, and whatever is on it is the only thing anyone sees. For a studio that is fine. For a stand at a market, a gallery hang, an open studio weekend or a class demo, it quietly halves what you can show from the space you are paying for.

The Mabef M19 is the one that faces both ways. Two canvas holders, one on each side, each with its own ratchet and its own tray, on a single H frame that takes up about as much floor as a bar stool. Put it in the middle of a room and it works from every angle instead of against one wall.

Mabef built it for exhibitions, shows and conventions, and that is where it earns its keep fastest. It holds 135cm of canvas per side and 25kg in total, adjusts from 160cm to 265cm, and rolls on castors so you can move the hang without carrying it.

★ Art Shed Staff Tip
At a market or an open studio, load the two sides as a before and an after, or as a study and the finished piece. People stop for the pair in a way they do not stop for a single painting, because a pair tells them something about how you work. It is the cheapest sales technique we know and the M19 is the only easel that lets you do it from one spot.

Perfect for

 
Exhibitions and showsMarket stallsGallery displayOpen studiosTeaching and demosWorking in seriesShared studio space

What makes the M19 different

 
 
Two faces
135cm each side
Independent canvas holders, each set by ratchet.
 
Load capacity
25kg
Two ordinary framed works, comfortably.
 
Two trays
One per side
Brushes and palette stay with the painting.
 
Footprint
About 62 by 63cm
Works in the middle of a room, on castors.

Each side really is independent

 

This is the detail that separates a proper double sided easel from a single easel with a second ledge nailed on. Both faces have their own central post, their own canvas holder and their own ratchet, so you can hang a tall portrait on one side and a small square study on the other and set each at the height it wants. Both have a canvas and brush tray, so the tools stay with the work instead of migrating to whichever side has the shelf.

The trade off worth knowing before you order is the canvas width. The clear span between the posts is 56cm, so this is an easel for work up to about that wide. If you paint metre wide canvases, the M19 is not your easel and we would rather tell you now.

One thing we will not repeat about this easel
Several Australian sites describe the M19 as a walnut lacquered version of the M18. That is old catalogue text from a time when the M/19 code meant something else entirely, and Mabef have long since reused it. The M19 you are looking at is a double sided exhibition easel in oiled beech. It is not an M18 in another colour, it does not convert to a table, and it does not hold a 225cm canvas. We would rather be accurate than copy the competition.

Why beech

 

Mabef build in oiled, stain resistant beech. Beech is dense and dimensionally stable, which is the unglamorous reason these frames are still square years later while cheaper pine ones develop a lean. On an easel that gets packed, driven to a show, unpacked and rebuilt, that matters more than it does on something that never leaves a studio corner.

The oiled finish is the practical half. Paint sits on the surface instead of soaking into the grain, so a wipe with a rag keeps it presentable. On an easel that is part of how your work is seen, looking after itself is a feature.

Specifications

 
Model Mabef M/19 Double Sided Studio Easel
Type Double sided H frame studio and display easel
Maximum canvas, per side 135cm high by 56cm wide
Minimum canvas 13cm, so small studies sit properly
Maximum load 25kg
Easel height Adjustable from 160cm to 265cm
Base footprint Approximately 62cm by 63cm
Easel weight 17kg
Material Oiled, stain resistant beech wood
Canvas holders Two, one per face, each adjusted independently by ratchet
Tilt None. Both faces are fixed vertical
Trays Two canvas and brush trays, one per face
Base Pedestal base on castors for repositioning
Assembly Ships flat packed. Bolt together frame, two people recommended
Suitable for Oil, acrylic, display and exhibition. Indoor use
Origin Made in Italy by Mabef
Warranty 24 month international warranty, lifetime free on online registration with Mabef

For full details of the Mabef warranty, including how to register your easel, see the Mabef warranty page.

Mabef, and why we carry so much of it

 

Mabef have been making easels in Italy since 1948 and have never once diversified into anything else. No brushes, no paint, no pencil cases. Just easels, for three quarters of a century, by a family who clearly think about hinges more than is strictly healthy. We find that faintly wonderful, and it shows in the joinery and in the warranty they are willing to put behind it.

Art Shed carries over forty Mabef lines, one of the deepest Mabef ranges in Australia: field easels, studio masts with cranks, lyre easels, sketch boxes, table easels, sculpture trestles, print racks, stools and the full run of beech palettes. Not a token three models and a special order form. If you are building a studio around Mabef, or matching an easel you already own, we almost certainly have the rest of the family in stock.

Not sure whether you need two sides
Fair question, and the answer is usually about where the easel stands rather than how you paint. If it will live against a wall, a single sided M20 Display or an M13 lyre will serve you better and cost less. If it will stand in the middle of a room, at a stall, in a shop window or in a shared studio, the second face is the whole reason to buy this one. Call or email us in Moorabbin or West End and we will talk it through honestly.

Getting the most out of your M19

 

Build it where it will live. It is a bolt together frame and it is much easier to assemble in the room than to carry assembled through a doorway.

Balance the two sides. Seventeen kilograms on a compact base is stable, but a heavy framed work on one face and nothing on the other is not the way to leave it standing in a busy room.

Set both ratchets before the show, not during it. Adjusting one side moves the frame, and a room full of people is the wrong time to discover that.

Keep the trays for tools, not for storage. They are canvas and brush trays and they sit at the base of each face. Loading them with heavy gear raises nothing but your centre of gravity problems.

Then put two paintings on it and stand it where people walk past both sides. That is the entire point of this easel and it does the job better than anything else Mabef make.

Questions about the Mabef M19 Double Sided Studio Easel

 

Can two people paint on the M19 at the same time?

Physically yes, and people do. We would still describe it display first and call the second side a bonus, because that is the honest version. Each face has its own canvas holder and its own tray, and each ratchets independently, so two painters can absolutely work at once on small to medium canvases. What you should know before you buy: the canvas width between the posts is 56cm, there is no tilt on either side, and you are both working on one 17kg frame, so every adjustment one person makes is felt by the other. Two people sketching or working small, fine. Two people going hard at large wet canvases, get two easels.

What size canvas does each side hold?

Up to 135cm high and 56cm wide per side, and down to 13cm at the small end, which matters more than it sounds if you show little studies. Both sides take the same size.

How much weight will it hold?

Twenty five kilograms. Mabef publish that as a single figure without splitting it per side, so that is how we quote it. Two framed works of ordinary weight are well inside it.

Does the canvas holder tilt?

No. Both faces are fixed vertical, and that is deliberate on a display easel. If you need a forward rake for pastel, look at the M11. If you need it to lie flat for watercolour, the M18 or the M25 are the ones that do that.

Is it really for exhibitions, or can I use it as a studio easel?

Both, and Mabef design it for exhibitions, shows and conventions. In a gallery or at a market stall it does something no single sided easel can do, which is present two finished works from one footprint in the middle of a room instead of against a wall. In a studio it is a genuinely useful thing to own if you work in pairs or series, because the piece you finished last week stays up and visible while you work on the next one.

Does it move around?

It runs on castors, so you can reposition it for a hang without lifting 17kg of beech. Worth knowing that it is designed to stay indoors.

Does it fold flat for storage?

No, and you will see that claim on some websites. It is a bolt together kit on a fixed pedestal base, so it comes apart rather than folding. Plan for it to live somewhere rather than to be tucked behind a door between shows.

How is the M19 different from the M20 Display easel?

The M20 is a single sided display easel, lighter and cheaper, and it is the right answer if you want to present one work. The M19 is the answer when you need two faces from one piece of floor. There is nothing else in the Mabef range that does it, the M19 is the only double sided easel they make.

Does it come assembled?

No, it ships flat packed as a kit, which is also the only way an easel this size gets through a doorway. It is a bolt together frame build with clear diagrams. Give yourself an unhurried hour and a second pair of hands for the frame stage.

Where can I buy Mabef easels in Australia?

Right here. Art Shed Online is an Australian Mabef stockist with over forty Mabef lines, shipped from our own warehouses in Moorabbin, Melbourne and Brisbane. No grey imports, no six week wait on a European order, and real people who have assembled these easels if you want to talk one through.
Australian stockist. Shipped from our own Australian warehouses, not drop shipped from overseas. Bulky items such as large easels are not wrapped in discreet packaging, so keep that in mind if this one is a surprise for somebody.

(M19)

SKU M19
Barcode # 8017924001800
Brand Mabef
Shipping Weight 18.5000kg
Shipping Width 0.190m
Shipping Height 0.190m
Shipping Length 1.420m
Type stock

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