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Message: <blockquote data-quote="tmanbeaubien" data-source="post: 7705903" data-attributes="member: 61868">The earliest subscription service I've heard of was run by an artist I'm fond of named David Roberts (1796 - 1864) who set up a subscription to artwork he produced of the "Holy Lands". From <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Roberts_(painter)" target="_blank">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Roberts_(painter)</a>At the time, most of the drawings and paintings done by Europeans of  that area was done by people who had not actually been to the sites they  painted - they worked from second hand descriptions given by travelers and the like. Thus many details were wrong, buildings and objects were incorrectly aligned with one another, etc. Roberts, having made his reputation as a fine painter of London, Spain and other sites in Europe, traveled to 'the Orient' (as what we call the middle east was then referred to) and made sketches of locations in Egypt, Palestine and Syria, then returned to England to complete full paintings. There were two levels for the subscriptions - the higher priced one including better colors and such which the basic level did not include.</blockquote>