Comment by EEBio

But the 18th century artist who did portraits and wedding paintings is the today’s (wedding) photographer.

Does it take less money to commission a single wedding photo rather than a wedding painting? Yes. But many more people commission them and usually in tens to hundreds, together with videos, etc.

An 18th century wedding painter wasn’t in the business of paintings, but in the business of capturing memories and we do that today on much larger scale, more often and in a lot of different ways.

I’d also argue more landscape painters exist today than ever.