It would be pretentious to resume the history of porcelain painting in a few lines.  I shall therefore limit myself to present some basic notions on the origins of porcelain decoration.

 Before chinaware had been decorated, it was given shapes inspired by goldsmith’s work.  For that matter, it might be interesting to establish the relations existing between chinaware and goldsmith’s products, and also between porcelain shaping and sculpture.The first chinaware Europeans were given to see in the 15th century had been imported from oriental countries.  This pourcellaine, as it is called in the inventories of prestigious families such as the Medici, those of Francis I or of Charles V is sometimes ordered by the sovereign himself. The advent of European porcelain is a logical consequence of the desire to rival with the oriental manufacturers and their marvelous translucent ceramics much appreciated by royalty.  However, as long as the Europeans ignored kaolin, they only produced a material derived from glass, i.e. a soft, brittle paste which was not frankly white, the fracture edges looking dull and ashy – hence the name of soft porcelain which designates those intermediary products between faience and porcelain. It was on this soft porcelain that the first polychrome decorations were painted by the end of the 17th century.  In the beginning, the most valued decorations were the oriental ones from China and Japan.  But regardless of plain copies or fancy chinoiseries in vogue during the 18th century, the basic principle of these decorations remains – and will probably persist nowadays – is the fineness and transparency obtained by slight touches which distinguish them from the decorations on faience. There were several stages of evolution on chinaware decoration: plain copies, free-style copies, interpretations of Chinese and or Japanese motifs – an assertion which is amply illustrated by the products of the porcelain factories of Saint-Cloud, Mennecy, Chantilly and even Meissen. This desire of imitation is present since the beginning of porcelain manufacture in Europe, such as stated in the letters patent of 1673 where Louis Poterat is authorized to produce, in Rouen, porcelains at the same time as faiences. The second source of imitation is, after oriental motifs, the blue decoration of French faiences, especially those from Rouen, many of which presented blue and white motifs representing valances.  The latter were soon replaced by more varied subjects, such as branches, raised-relief fruits, rocailles, and Chinese characters (see also products of the Saint-Cloud factory). Thereafter the first products of the Vincennes factory started rivaling technically with the porcelains from Saxony, notwithstanding the fact that their subjects were sometimes inspired by Watteau.  And the decorations become more varied: chubby-cheeked children in landscape settings, birds, bouquets, beribboned baskets with flowers or fruit. These subjects attain perfection when the Vincennes manufacture is transferred to Sèvres in 1753 and becomes the Manufacture Royale de Porcelaine. The history of decoration then blends into that of the different factories, while hand-painted decoration gradually loses its prestige with the introduction of porcelain printing techniques at the end of the 18th century.  The Englishman Potter used it successfully. The subjects most frequently used throughout Europe during the 18th and 19th centuries were mostly floral arrangements with roses, anemones, tulips and a variety of small flowers matched with ribbons.  Copies of paintings by Watteau, Fragonard or Lancret were frequent, especially on plates for royal furniture. 

Nowadays, painters express their sensibility through contemporaneous decorations, but they also resort, as their forerunners did, to imitations of classic subjects, the most outstanding of which – let us admit it – are inimitable, whether they originate from Sèvres, Dresden or Meissen.