1. Evolution of Art Education in
France

2. French Academies of Art
• ‘louis,-God’s lieutenant-governor of the world, -before whom
courtiers used to fall on their knees, and shade their eyes, as if the
light of his countenance, like the sun , which shone supreme in
heaven , the type of him , was too dazzling to bear. The sun king,
and it is hardly surprising to find the most authoritarian academy
originate at his court . The art education required to produce the
imperial grandeur Louis Quatorze desired could only be obtain in
Rome . Nicolas Poussin , a student of the academy of Domenichino,
had already established the french classical tradition with his
statuesque figures arranged parallel to the picture plane , and had
returned to Rome .Charles Le Brun, who had accompanied Poussin ,
was patronized by Fouquet and Cardinal Mazarin on his return to
France , and when the monarch established the Academie Royale
de Peinture et de sculpture in 1648 , Le Burn was selected to direct
its activities .

3. • Et After the fall of Fouquet in 1661 , Colbert , the
king’s most powerful minister , took a deep
interest in making the academy an efficient
branch of the civil service. Colbert was
determined through Le Burn to create a well
ordered style of french art, which would copare
with the classical style of french literature that
the Academie Francaise was formulating by
approved forms of grammer, poetry , rhetoric.
• In 1666 Colbert set up the Academie de France at
Rome .

4. • The academy in France with its protector, four
vice-protectors, a director , four rectors ,
twelve professors , and six councillors was
modelled upon the Accademia di San Luca in
Rome , but it was essentially a national
institution , having none of the private
character of the later Royal Academy in
London . A royal grant was obtained in 1655 ,

5. Ecole des Beaux-Arts
• School of arts founded in 1648 by Cardinal Mazarin developed
studies in architecture, drawing, painting, sculpture, engraving,
modeling, and gem cutting. The school was brought under
control of the government by Louis XIV originally to guarantee a
pool of artists available to decorate the palaces and paint the
Royalty but was made independent by Napoléon III in 1863.
• The Ecole keyed on classical arts – Greek and Roman architecture
and studying and imitating the Great Masters. Emphasis was
placed on drawing before any of the students were allowed to
advance to painting and each had to go through a rigorous
progression of advancement. They first drew from engravings,
also called drawing “from the flat”. Only when they mastered
that, could they begin drawing from plaster casts or what was
called drawing “from the round” or the “antique”; and then, and
only then, were they allowed to progress and draw “from the
live” (nude models).

6. • When Sargent arrived in Paris in 1874, the art world was made up
of three very separate bodies which coexisted symbiotically in a
triangle with a fourth filling the center. At the top of this triangle
was the dignified Ecole, steeped in tradition and hopelessly stiff,
designed to produce classical painters in an emerging world that
was excited by new artists pushing at the fringes (Manet and
others). Still, the Ecole was the apex of recognized achievement,
with established levels of exams deemed so difficult that it was
considered the best in the world. To be accepted by the Ecole was
to be considered the best; and although a revolution in art was
taking place – it wouldn’t hit the mainstream until much later.
Every year the Ecole held a contest for the Grand Prix de Rome.
The winner would get a full-ride scholarship to study in Rome.
• The second point in this triangle was the small independent
ateliers where students learned directly under the tutelage of an
established “Master” who were not part of the Ecole. Students not
in the Ecole trained in these ateliers with the hopes of passing the
entrance exam, as well as students already in the Ecole wanting to
get recognized by their association with a known "practicing
Master".

7. • The Masters ran their ateliers as a status symbol of their greatness. The
success their students had at the Ecole and the Salon only reflected back on
them as to how great they truly were. In turn, their student's success and
status only brought more commissions. Success bred success. The greater
the Master, the more talented students wanted to associate and align
themselves to a proven track record -- both at the Ecole and the Salon. The
competition between the independent ateliers meant the Ecole could raise
the bar even higher guarantying they would get only the best of the best.
• The third point in the triangle was the annual Paris Salon, the show
everyone wanted to succeed at, and from which the public often
commissioned their favorite artists. It was the place to be seen, get known,
and paintings shown at the Salon often posted not only the artist who did
the work, but what atelier they came from and whom they studied under. It
was the Paris Salon that was the culmination of a full years worth of work,
both at the Ecole and the ateliers. Not every painting was accepted. You
had to submit to a jury to get the paintings shown. Over the summer break,
the Masters, teachers, and students were almost all expected to leave the
city, travel and paint in plein air.

8. • In the middle of these three bodies was the lively Parisian life of the cafés
which all came together to discuss art. They literally lived, breathed, and
drank art -- twenty-four seven. The cafés were but informal extensions of
the ateliers and the Ecole, and the Masters would hold court at a table of
their followers to argue and discuss theories and technique -- and when
the Salon was going -- critique art. It would be the cafés that the vanguard
of art flourished and from which the Impressionists came.
• Wholly aside from the discipline of painting, was the discipline of
Architecture and was one of the most important studies at the Ecole des
Beaux-Arts and would influence a whole school of thought. From America
came some of the best students to study and it would the Beaux-Arts that
buildings such as the Boston Public Library, Boston Museum of Fine Arts,
Grand Central Station, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, and many of the
Great public buildings in America of the late 1800's through the 1930's
were built.
• Today, the Ecole still exists although the Architectural school was split off
after the student riots of 1968.

9. Evolution of Art Education in london
• The first British academy of art appears to have
been the Academy of painting established in
1711 by Sir Godfrey Kneller in Queen Street
London .Sir James Thornhill Succeeded to the
governorship of the academy in 1716, one of his
students, William Hogarth, organized an academy
in St Martin’s Lane ,a completely democratic
institution which provided life models for the use
of its members. 10 dec 1768 the instrument of
foundation was signed by monarch , establishing
the ‘Royal Academy of Arts in London’.

10. • The instrument laid down that :the said
society shall consist of 40 members only , who
shall be called Academicians of the Royal
Academy they shall all of them artists by
profession at the time of their admission.
• The school of design may be under the
direction of the ablest Artist there shall be
elected annually from amongst the
Academicians nine persons.
• There were also to be elected professors of
anatomy , architecture etc.