HISTORY
Painting for Profit
Monday 11 September 2006 15:45-16:00 (Radio 4 FM)
Richard Foster recounts stories based on old accounting documents.
The accounts of the 18th-century painter and engraver Arthur Pond provide a detailed picture of the developing Georgian art market. Returning British colonists wanted pictures for their country houses, and Pond was happy to supply them - either originals or old masters. For a portrait, he required 10 guineas for head and shoulders, 12 guineas if you wanted hands as well.
To compare his world with the art world today, Richard Foster meets portrait painter Jonathan Yeo - who numbers Tony Blair and Rupert Murdoch among his sitters.
