master works and contemporary history painters, while the print shops of Matthew and Mary Darly
(highly successful in the 1750s and early 1760s) specialized in political caricatures and, later, social
satire. Vallée’s print shop in Paris specialized in the 1780s in novelty prints, contemporary fashion plates
and fashionable English stipple prints. It attracted a wide clientele though the middle or professional
ranks were accountable for most of the purchases made. The print market embraced a wide range of
products: narrative or satirical print series popular for private entertainment, designs for book
illustrations, transfers for ceramics, handkerchiefs, fans, screens or trade cards all presented good
commercial opportunities.
The print market stimulated other commercial and artistic ventures. In Paris, as in Britain, increasing print
sales in the second half of the century also led to an increased trade in drawing manuals, which presented
prints of paintings as subjects for study and copying (Wrigley, 1993, 20–24). Those unable to afford the
services of a drawing master, or of a drawing school, could use these manuals. Artists also kept prints of
their previous works in their studios, to assist portrait clients with a choice of pose, costume, accessories
and so on. Books or albums of prints showing architectural and interior designs were popular with those
having new homes built and were used from the early part of the century by builders and architects such
as Colen Campbell (1676–1729) to impress potential clients. Pattern books of prints showed rococo
decorative motifs for home décor (Scott, 1995, 251–252), which have since acquired an aesthetic value
in their own right. Along with fashion plates, such prints played a central, publicitygenerating role in an
expanding commodity culture. Prints also served as advertisements for the work of a particular artist and
Angelica Kauffman was among those who relied greatly on them. Some prints were published to coincide
with the public exhibition of the paintings on which they were based.
Prints reproducing paintings spread international influences in styles and subjects. For example, the
thriving market in Spain for Italian prints meant that etchings by the Tiepolos influenced Goya’s style of
painting. Artists also executed prints of canonical old master works for a more elite market. Goya made
prints of works by Diego Velázquez (1599–1660) such as his The Infante Don Fernando as a Hunter (El
Cardinal infante don Fernando de Austria, cazador, 1632–1633) and The Drunkards (Los Barrachos,
1628–1629). Carlos IV of Spain approved the production of such old master prints in order to promote
the reputation of Spanish paintings in the royal collections.
The print market became increasingly sophisticated, and many buyers and collectors sought works of
technical quality. Mezzotints (very popular in England and easily reworked for later editions) could serve
as decorative prints, although they were sometimes considered less appropriate for the fine detail
required for historical narratives where legibility was important, since the technique of producing them
was based on creating tonal contrasts rather than clear lines. In the 1730s, line engravings of old master
subjects made in England were popular abroad and were often captioned in both English and French for
an international market. This fashion gave way in the 1770s to an international taste for English stipple
engravings. The technique of stipple engraving involved printing from a plate with minute, raised dots
(Alexander, 1992, 142, 169; Smentek, 2007, 225). Angelica Kauffman catered for this market by making
some drawings specifically as the basis for quality prints. Those of classical subjects were given Latin
titles.
Color prints available in France earlier in the century became more widely available in England during
Kauffman’s career, and experimentation with techniques was common. Unlike French color prints, which
used a separate plate for each color, English versions often placed all colors together on the same printing
plate, à la poupée (the term refers to the cotton daubs or “dollies” used to apply color to the plate). There
was also a medium known as a “mechanical painting” that mimicked the appearance of a painting by using
recently developed aquatint prints, a form of etching that applied porous and nonporous resins to a plate