page_title: Academic art
section_title: Academic training
hierarchical_section_title: Academic art / Academic training
caption_attribution_description: Deutsch: Kunststudenten beim Aktmalen an der École des Beaux-Arts, spätes 19. Jahrhundert. English: Photograph titled in French Ecole des Beaux-Arts - Atelier de Peintre (School of Fine Arts - Painter Workshop). Showing students painting "from life". Français&#160;: Séance de pose aux Beaux-Arts, Atelier de Peintre. 中文: 學生們對真人模特兒進行素描，攝於19世紀後期。. Art model posing in a French painting school. Hrvatski: Studenti slikaju "po modelu" u pariškoj akademiji (École). Fotografija s kraja 19. st.
context_page_description: Academic art, or academicism or academism, is a style of painting, sculpture, and architecture produced under the influence of European academies of art. Specifically, academic art is the art and artists influenced by the standards of the French Académie des Beaux-Arts, which was practiced under the movements of Neoclassicism and Romanticism, and the art that followed these two movements in the attempt to synthesize both of their styles, and which is best reflected by the paintings of William-Adolphe Bouguereau, Thomas Couture, and Hans Makart. In this context it is often called "academism", "academicism", "art pompier", and "eclecticism", and sometimes linked with "historicism" and "syncretism".
context_section_description: Young artists spent four years in rigorous training. In France, only students who passed an exam and carried a letter of reference from a noted professor of art were accepted at the academy's school, the École des Beaux-Arts. Drawings and paintings of the nude, called "académies", were the basic building blocks of academic art and the procedure for learning to make them was clearly defined. First, students copied prints after classical sculptures, becoming familiar with the principles of contour, light, and shade. The copy was believed crucial to the academic education; from copying works of past artists one would assimilate their methods of art making. To advance to the next step, and every successive one, students presented drawings for evaluation.
  If approved, they would then draw from plaster casts of famous classical sculptures. Only after acquiring these skills were artists permitted entrance to classes in which a live model posed. Painting was not taught at the École des Beaux-Arts until after 1863. To learn to paint with a brush, the student first had to demonstrate proficiency in drawing, which was considered the foundation of academic painting. Only then could the pupil join the studio of an academician and learn how to paint. Throughout the entire process, competitions with a predetermined subject and a specific allotted period of time measured each students' progress.
  The most famous art competition for students was the Prix de Rome. The winner of the Prix de Rome was awarded a fellowship to study at the Académie française's school at the Villa Medici in Rome for up to five years. To compete, an artist had to be of French nationality, male, under 30 years of age, and single. He had to have met the entrance requirements of the École and have the support of a well-known art teacher. The competition was grueling, involving several stages before the final one, in which 10 competitors were sequestered in studios for 72 days to paint their final history paintings. The winner was essentially assured a successful professional career.
  As noted, a successful showing at the Salon was a seal of approval for an artist. Artists petitioned the hanging committee for optimal placement "on the line," or at eye level. After the exhibition opened, artists complained if their works were "skyed," or hung too high. The ultimate achievement for the professional artist was election to membership in the Académie française and the right to be known as an academician.
caption: Students painting "from life" at the École. Photographed late 1800s.
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