Nathaniel Dance-Holland, Official portrait of Captain James Cook, 1776. Similar to how we have family photos on our walls today, having portraits of you and your family was a way of representing and immortalising yourself before photography was invented. It makes sense why portraits would be such a popular subject for patrons to commission. Many of the most famous artworks from before the 19th century, such as the Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa or Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel, were commissions. This, of course, varies depending on time periods and cultures, but this was definitely the case in the European tradition, from which the formalised portraiture genre sprang. That is, artists wouldn’t primarily produce works and then put them up for sale (although this became more common as time went on) rather, they would get commissioned to create something that the buyer wanted. For much of history, artworks were mostly produced based on commissions. Official court painters were paid to regularly create paintings, usually portraits, for the royal family, often with a fixed salary.Īrt practice as we often understand it today-that is, artists making art based on what they are inspired by or what they want to explore-is a pretty new concept. Francisco Goya was first court painter, the highest position available for Spanish painters at the time. Francisco Goya, Charles IV of Spain and His Family, 1800-1801.
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