L'Ecole Des Beaux-Arts (akôl' da bozär'):  

A 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.
From The Paris art-world Triangle. The Ecole des Beaux-Arts, The indpendent Ateliers, The Annual Paris Salon. JSS Virtual Gallery

The Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture, founded in 1648, established and ran the École des Beaux-Arts, Paris.

Until 1863, the applied studio art curriculum available to pupils attending the École was based solely on drawing from live nude models and antique sculpture, anatomy, geometry and perspective. 

Candidates wishing to enroll at the École des Beaux-Arts were required to pass a competitive examination which consisted of drawing a nude figure from a live model. (Women were admitted only from 1897 onwards).

Each year, pupils were invited to take part in numerous competitions, required before they could compete for the highest honor, the Prix de Rome.

Paradoxically, while only drawing was taught at the School, several of these competitions were based on painting. The subjects for these competitions were chosen by the École, and were drawn predominately from mythology and Greek and Roman history, or from the Bible.  Pupils were expected to acquire the knowledge necessary to deal with these subjects, through the [liberal arts] courses taught at the École.  For example, in 1857 (the year when Millet painted Gleaners), the subject of the historic landscape competition was "Jesus and the good Samaritan," and (the subject) of the historic composition was "the Resurrection of Saint-Lazarus."

The famous Prix de Rome, offered a single award for each genre: painting, sculpture, engraving, architecture, musical composition.  The student's choice of which competition they would enter was representative of their highest ambitions [their career goals].  Winners of the Prix de Rome were awarded a state grant and the opportunity to live for a period of five years at the Villa Medicis in Rome.  Their careers were ensured since they were guaranteed support through ongoing official commissions.

Criticised as early as the mid-nineteenth century and blamed for encouraging perseverance rather than talent, the École was reformed in 1863. The teaching of drawing retained its supremacy, but painting and sculpture was introduced to the curriculum.

Private workshops [Ateliers] co-existed with this official education. Until the reforms introduced in 1863, these workshops were the only places where pupils could learn the techniques of painting.

After the painting workshops were introduced as part of the École offical curriculum  itself, these independent ateliers continued operating, and allowed young artists to study outside of the academic teaching philosophy.

The most famous of these were Académie Suisse, the studio of Marc-Charles-Gabriel Gleyre from 1844 onwards; and Académie Julian, which operated from 1868.

From: Painters, the Salon and Critics, 1848-1870,  Internet Site of the Musée d'Orsay. Original translation from the French, ed. Adrian Gottlieb

GottliebStudios.com/Classical_Glossary

HOME