Court painter

A court painter was an artist who painted for the members of a royal or princely family, sometimes on a fixed salary and on an exclusive basis where the artist was not supposed to undertake other work. Painters were the most common, but the court artist might also be a court sculptor. In Western Europe, the role began to emerge in the mid-13th century. By the Renaissance, portraits, mainly of the family, made up an increasingly large part of their commissions, and in the Early Modern period one person might be appointed solely to do portraits, and another for other work, such as decorating new buildings. Especially in the Late Middle Ages, they were often given the office of valet de chambre. Usually they were given a salary and formal title, and often a pension for life, though arrangements were highly variable. But often the artist was paid only a retainer, and paid additionally for works he or, less often, she produced for the monarch. For the artist, a court appointment had the advantage of freeing them from the restriction of local painters' guilds, although in the Middle Ages and Renaissance they also often had to spend large amounts of time doing decorative work about the palace, and creating temporary works for court entertainments and displays. Some artists, like Jan van Eyck or Diego Velázquez, were used in other capacities at court, as diplomats, functionaries, or administrators. In England the role of Serjeant Painter was set up for the more mundane decorative work, leaving the "King's painter" (and the queen's) free to paint mostly portraits. 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. Sometimes parallel and less official appointments were made, such as that of Francis Bourgeois as royal landscape painter, or the Flower Painter in Ordinary, who worked for the queen. Premier peintre du Roi ("First Painter of the King") was the main French appointment from 1603 to 1791, not always occupied.