The channel launched on Saturday night in competition with commercial subscription channel Artsworld, which is backed by shareholders including BSkyB, Caledonia Investments and the Guardian Media Group.
The debut line up on BBC Four included programmes such as The Man Who Destroyed Everything, about performance artist Michael Landy, and Surrealismo, a re-enactment of the trial of Salvadore Dali by his fellow surrealists. The channel followed this with Goya - Crazy like a Genius, a documentary about the Spanish artist.
However, any excitement at the BBC surrounding the launch was quickly dampened on Sunday following a warning from secretary for culture, media and sport Tessa Jowell.
Jowell told GMTV's 'Sunday' programme that the corporation "must not use the new channel to dump arts programmes from BBC1 and BBC2" in its quest to win ratings.
She said: "Viewers paying their licence fee should expect to see the whole range of genres on BBC One and BBC Two, and there is a public enthusiasm for that, I'm absolutely sure of it."
Although BBC controllers recently admitted that they have been less than enthusiastic about scheduling arts programmes on its mainstream terrestrial channels, they have committed to broadcasting 230 hours a year of arts programming on BBC One and BBC Two. Shows coming up include Rolf Harris's series Rolf on Art.
A spokesman for the BBC said that BBC Four's performance had been in line with expectations. He said: "BBC Two arts programmes on Saturday would normally get one million viewers and BBC Knowledge [fore runner to BBC Four] was getting 11,000 viewers last week."
BBC Four continues tonight with a documentary which puts Henry Kissinger on trial for war crimes. Wednesday night will see the airing of Peter Brook's Hamlet. Viewers will also get to see repeats of the weekend's programmes as 30% of the channel's output will be dedicated to second chance screenings.
In the weeks to come, viewers will be able to see Ian Curteis's controversial play about the Falklands war plus a series on Brit Art.
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