Court painter

From the Stuarts to Queen Victoria the job was a regular court appointment called Principal Painter in Ordinary, and normally held by a specialist in portraits.

One such portrait of Carlos, Prince of Asturias (1545–1568) was sent to Vienna, where a marriage was being considered, with a covering letter by the Austrian ambassador in Madrid noting aspects of his appearance that the painter had glossed over.

[5] From the mid-16th century, as the exchange of royal portraits grew, the works of painters at the largest courts were seen across Europe, giving them great opportunities to advertise their style.

The stylistic continuity in the Spanish court was especially marked, beginning with Titian, who painted Charles V and Philip II, but could not be induced to move to Spain.

By the 17th century official portraits had an agreed model, occasionally renewed, which was increasingly copied in large numbers, often entirely by the court artist's workshop.

In the Persian miniature, the shah and other rulers typically maintained a "court workshop" or "atelier", of calligraphers, miniaturists, binders and other crafts, usually managed by the royal librarian.

Abd as-Samad, a Persian painter who moved to the Mughal Empire, was given a number of significant administrative jobs, as indeed was his artist son.

At many periods rulers owned or controlled royal workshops or factories making high-quality tapestries, porcelain or pottery, silks and other types of object.

Le Brun dominated, and largely created, the style found throughout Louis XIV's palaces, which was then hugely influential in France and throughout Europe.

Elisabeth of Valois, the third queen of Philip II of Spain, was a keen amateur painter, and it was considered easier in terms of court protocol to have a female tutor for her.

The leading woman among the artists of the Tudor court was Levina Teerlinc, who was given an annual salary of £40 from 1546 to her death in 1576, so serving four monarchs, producing mainly portrait miniatures.

Other women court painters, also all portraitists, included the Flemish Renaissance painter Catharina van Hemessen (1528 – after 1565) to Mary of Hungary, brother of Charles V and his governor of the Netherlands, Adélaïde Labille-Guiard (1749–1803) in France, Marie Ellenrieder (1791– 1863) to Grand Duchess Sophie of Baden (also selling works to Queen Victoria), and Catharina Treu (1743 – 1811) to Charles Theodore, Elector of Bavaria.

[8] The flower painter Rachel Ruysch (1664–1750) obtained a court position with Johann Wilhelm, Elector Palatine in 1708, but on terms that allowed her to remain in Amsterdam, only travelling to Düsseldorf periodically to deliver paintings.