guilds. Even those artists from countries with a more developed art market welcomed court commissions
for specific works as a welcome relief from the imperative of market trends (Craske, 1997, 71–73). In
France commissions for history painters in particular were few and far between in the late seventeenth
and early eighteenth centuries, and this remained the case through much of the eighteenth century, though
various Directors of Public Buildings attempted to secure and award such commissions at various times
(see Chapter 2).
Many eighteenthcentury courts aspired to model themselves on France and welcomed French artists. In
Rome, the papacy, along with cardinals, visiting princes and prestigious Grand Tourists, served for much
of the century as generous patrons of art and scholarship to artists from France and across Europe (Johns,
2000, 17–40). In France itself the state was the exclusive client of the Gobelins tapestry factory (Scott,
1995, 36). Royal portraits provided a consistent source of commissions. In the early eighteenth century,
Boucher received portrait commissions from Mme de Pompadour, mistress to Louis XV; Goya carried out
such work for the family of Carlos IV of Spain (reigned 1788–1808) and the French artist Élisabeth
VigéeLebrun was welcomed by the Russian court in St Petersburg after she had fled the Revolution in
France, in order to continue painting the governing elites of Europe. Liotard received royal commissions
both in Britain and on the continent (Hauptman 2015a and b).
In the middle of the century, German princes commonly commissioned Venetian artists to paint decorative
frescoes for their palaces. In 1708, at the Dresden Court of Augustus the Strong, Elector of Saxony (1670–
1733), Johann Friedrich Böttger (1682–1719) discovered how to make porcelain, although some argue
that the discovery was made, if not claimed, earlier (McGregor, 2014, 322–326). It took some time to
perfect the technique in Europe, which lagged behind China in this respect. Augustus was an avid
collector of Chinese porcelain, often described at the time as “white gold,” who wished to make it more
easily available in Saxony (FahrBecker, 2006, 231). The collecting of porcelain was particularly
popular in German courts: Frederick the Great of Prussia’s Wunderkammer at the Charlottenburg Palace
in Berlin offers a vivid example of such a collection (Tarabra, 2006, 133).
Monarchs and governments were not alone in issuing public commissions. Throughout the eighteenth
century many commissions came still from churches. When we see such paintings in situ today they may
look dark and forbidding, if badly lit or preserved. They were less so in the eighteenth century, when
clear window glass, bordered by colored panes, was in fashion (Conisbee, 1981, 31). Religious
controversies could however disrupt such commissions. In 1780 in Britain, the antiCatholic Gordon
riots, provoked by recent attempts to mitigate previous discrimination against British Catholics, stemmed
commissions for largescale religious works at a time when public money was already in demand for the
American War of Independence. Dissenting religions were not inclined, for doctrinal reasons, to
encourage a strong visual or decorative culture. As Clare Haynes has shown, visual culture in Britain
(including that found in homes and churches) was defined by a suspicion of Catholicism as much as it was
on the continent by the preeminence of Catholic art (Haynes, 2006, 1–13).
Commissions for more “modern” work came from a wider public than those associated with the court and
church. This was especially the case with portraiture. Hogarth’s sitters included those from mercantile,
professional, church and scientific groups, for whom newer modes of representation were more
appropriate: direct or “natural,” unpretentious, polite but without “airs and graces,” energetic and
“sincere” (Hallett, 2006d, 160). He moved on to secure commissions from the higher echelons of society,
including the aristocracy and upper gentry (Solkin, 1993, 96), and in works representing these groups he
adapted his compositions to a culture of luxury. Zoffany’s clients included the holders of both new and
established money – merchants, explorers, surgeons, theatrical performers, musicians and artists (Postle,
2011, 13–49). In France Fragonard’s fantasy figures (see Chapter 2) sold well to artists and wealthy