This Chapter concerns the manner and extent to which artistic copyright accommodated various ‘public interests’. On one level, the public interest in artistic copyright, exhibits similar characteristics to that noted in Isabella Alexander’s 'Copyright Law and the Public Interest in the Nineteenth Century' concerning literary copyright: the public interest was a multifaceted and flexible concept, accommodating a variety of different interests. However, in other respects the story of the public interest in art was different. The notion of private copying emerged far earlier in artistic, rather than literary copyright. Yet more extensive protection was given by certain colonies to the right to copy in galleries and museums. In other respects, artistic copyright was more restrictive in its protection of the public interest. In this regard, I consider the inter-relation of copyright at common law and gallery rules regulating copying before turning to a detailed case study of the manner in which the courts resisted attempts to accommodate social interests in determining infringement, at the very time when scholarship on literary copyright history – Kathy Bowrey’s 'On Clarifying the Role of Originality and Fair Use in Nineteenth Century UK Jurisprudence' - has noted the flexibility of infringement tests accommodating notions of ‘fairness’.