page_title: École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts
section_title: Palais des Beaux-Arts
hierarchical_section_title: École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts / Palais des Beaux-Arts
caption_attribution_description: copy after Paul Delaroche, Hémicycle des Beaux-arts, École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts. English: This painting replicates Paul Delaroche's most famous work, a mural in oils and wax (1836-41) in the auditorium of the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris, France's most prestigious art school. Delaroche's pupil, Charles Béranger, is thought to have begun this replica in 1841, but the master completed it following his pupil's death in 1853. It provided a basis for Louis Pierre Henriquel-Dupont's engraving reproducing the composition. Represented are great artists of the past who appear to preside over the awards ceremonies held in the auditorium. Enthroned in the center are the three masters of antiquity-Ictinus the architect, Apelles the painter, and Phidias the sculptor-flanked by personifications of Greek and Gothic art (on the left) and Roman and Renaissance art (on the right). Below, the semi-nude figure of Fame leans forward to distribute laurel wreaths to the recipients of the coveted Grand Prix de Rome, who were entitled to spend 4 to 5 years studying in Rome at the expense of the State. Those European artists from the 13th through the 17th centuries whom Delaroche ranked as the most important are included in his great assembly. To the left are 14 sculptors and a gathering of painters known as colorists and naturalists and, to the right, 13 architects, 2 engravers, and 19 painters distinguished for their drawing. Although many of their names are familiar today, among them Titian, Rembrandt, and Rubens on the left, and Raphael, Michelangelo, and Poussin on the right, others are less so. Notably absent are Botticelli, El Greco, and Vermeer, whose paintings were not rediscovered until later in the century. According to the accounts of the dealer Adolphe Goupil the exceptionally elaborate frame cost 5,000 French francs, or $1,000, a remarkable sum in 1853.
context_page_description: The École nationale supérieure des beaux-arts is a fine arts grand school of PSL Research University in Paris, France.
  The École des beaux-arts is made up of a complex of buildings located at 14 rue Bonaparte, between the quai Malaquais and the rue Bonaparte. This is in the heart of Saint-Germain-des-Prés, just across the Seine from the Louvre museum. The school was founded in 1648 by Charles Le Brun as the famed French academy Académie de peinture et de sculpture. In 1793, at the height of the French Revolution, the institutes were suppressed. However, in 1817, following the Bourbon Restoration, it was revived under a changed name after merging with the Académie d'architecture. Held under the King's tutelage until 1863, an imperial decree on November 13, 1863 named the school's director, who serves for a five-year term. Long supervised by the Ministry of Public Instruction, the École des Beaux-Arts is now a public establishment under the Ministry of Culture.
context_section_description: The physical setting of the school stands on about two hectares in the Saint-Germain-des-Prés section of Paris.  The main entrance at 14 Rue Bonaparte is flanked by colossal carved heads of Pierre Paul Puget and Nicolas Poussin (done in 1838 by Michel-Louis Victor Mercier).
  Before 1816, Beaux-Arts students were taught elsewhere.  This land had been the convent of the Petits Augustins, then the site of Alexandre Lenoir's collection of architectural fragments from across France, the Musée national des Monuments Français, assembled here as a result of the destruction of churches and noble chateaux during the revolution.
  In 1830, architect Félix Duban, a former student and winner of the Grand Prix de Rome, began a transformation of the site by demolishing a few existing houses, moving back the convent's cloister on the right to produce a symmetrical courtyard, and designing the largest central building, the Palais des Études.  Duban simply incorporated many of Lenoir's historical fragments, notably the portal of the 1548 Château d'Anet, and in the courtyard a facade from the Château de Gaillon, since removed and returned to its original site in 1977.
  In other ways Duban meant the entire complex as an open-air encyclopedia for artists and architects.  The Palais des Études building features elaborate frescoes, the stairwells demonstrate various wall finishes, and the courtyard (glassed over by Duban in 1863) once held classical statuary and full-size copies of the columns of the Parthenon for study.
  The core of the complex is a semi-circular award theater within the Palais, the Hémicycle d'Honneur, where the prizes were awarded.  Duban commissioned Paul Delaroche to produce a great mural, 27 metres long, to represent seventy-five great artists of all ages, in conversation, assembled in groups.  In the middle are three thrones occupied by the creators of the Parthenon: sculptor Phidias, architect Ictinus, and painter Apelles, symbolizing the unity of these arts.  The mural took Delaroche three and a half years to complete, and it still stands as a powerful expression of the Beaux-Arts collaborative ideal.
  Duban continued to expand and improve the complex for decades.  Other major buildings include the 1820 Bâtiment des Loges, the modified cloister now called the Cour des Mûriers, the 1862 Bâtiment des Expositions which extended the campus to the Quai Malaquias, the Hôtel de Chimay built circa 1750 and acquired by the school in 1884, and a block of studios constructed circa 1945 in concrete by Auguste Perret.
caption: In this replica painting by Charles Béranger, the auditorium of École des beaux-arts is depicted.[1] Walters Art Museum, Baltimore.
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