Prime version

In the art world the prime version of a work of art which exists in a number of versions is the version which is known or believed to have been the first to be produced. Many artworks produced in media such as painting or carved sculpture which create unique objects are in fact repeated by their artists, often several times. It is regarded as a matter of some importance both by art historians and the art market to establish which version has "priority", that is to say was the original work. The presumption usually is that the prime version is the finest, and perhaps the most carefully done, though some later versions can be argued to improve on the originals.

In many periods the later "repetitions" were often produced by the workshop of the master, with varying degrees of supervision and direct attention from him. This was especially the case with official portraits of monarchs and politicians, which in the Early Modern period were often ordered in large numbers of versions from the court artist as diplomatic gifts.

In the case of official portraits the later creation of replica versions was likely to have been anticipated from the start, as in other types of art such as printmaking, but in other types of painting, especially history painting, the normal presumption, in the past as today, was that each work was a unique creation. This was a matter of some importance to the owner, and there was evidently in some periods a general understanding that a work should not be replicated or copied without the permission of the owner of the prime version, which needed to be asked for carefully and was not always given. In many periods "replicas were the direct product of collecting, as collectors have always preferred recognizable masterpieces to what is offbeat".

This was true of 17th century Rome, where artists such as Orazio Gentileschi and Bernardo Strozzi routinely made replicas, and others such as Guercino and Guido Reni sometimes did, as of Victorian London, where artists such as William Powell Frith often painted one or more replica versions of their successes. In Frith's case the replicas were painted many years after his first versions, when his newer work was achieving less success. The French painter Charles Landelle () recorded no fewer than 32 versions of his Femme Fellah, an Orientalist hit at the Paris Salon of 1866. Pieces of sculpture made by casting processes that allow the original model to be reproduced several times are rather different; though the first in an edition (today often kept by the artist) has some added prestige, it is expected that a number of versions will be made.

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