2023-02-01
Academism should be defined as a trend in the art within the circle of official, state patronage of the 19th century. The proponents of this style were European artistic universities, especially the French Academy of Fine Arts.
One of the most important aspects of the work was its theme. Compositions with important and sublime themes, preferably historical or mythological, were valued highest. Slightly lower were placed landscape paintings, portraits, genre scenes, and at the bottom of the hierarchy was still life (the very idea of a hierarchy of subjects was created already in the 17th century). Nature in depictions was improved, and all figures were idealized.
Nowadays, the term academicism may have a somewhat pejorative character, which refers to the ossification of academic teaching at the time - according to professors, all students should have aspired to a predetermined ideal. Such views killed the individualism of individual artists. The most famous art competition for students was the Prix de Rome. The winner received a scholarship for up to five years at the Académie française school at the Villa Medici in Rome. To enter the competition, the artist had to have French nationality, be male, be under 30 years old and be single.
Academism began to disappear from salons in the 1890s, giving way to other trends around 1900. A prominent critic of the trend was Gustave Courbet (1819-1877), who led Realism.
The most eminent academic artists certainly included Alexander Cabanel (1823-1889), William-Adolphe Bouguereau (1825-1905), Lawrence Alma-Tadema (1836-1912) and the Polish painter Henryk Siemiradzki (1843-1902). The former's clients included Napoleon III Bonaparte, while Cabanel himself is considered to be one of the most popular artists of the Second Empire (1852-1870). The painting "Birth of Venus" is one of the most famous examples of academic painting. It is housed in the Musée d'Orsay in Paris.