Canvases and Careers

by White, Harrison C.

• ISBN13: 9780226894874
• ISBN10: 0226894878
• Edition: Reprint
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1993-03-01
• Publisher: Univ of Chicago Pr

Summary

In the nineteenth century, the Acadeacute;mie des Beaux Arts, and institution of central importance to the artistic life of France for over two hundred years, yielded much of its power to the present system of art distribution, which is dependent upon critics, dealers, and small exhibitions. InCanvases and Careers, Harrison and Cynthia White examine in scrupulous and fascinating detail how and why this shift occurred. Assimilating a wide range of historical and sociological data, the authors argue convincingly that the Academy, by neglecting to address the social and economic conditions of its time, undermined its own ability to maintain authority and control. Originally published in 1965, this ground-breaking work is a classic piece of empirical research in the sociology of art. In this edition, Harrison C. White's new Foreword compares the marketing approaches of two contemporary painters, while Cynthia A. White's new Afterword reviews recent scholarship in the field.

Table of Contents

Foreword to the 1993 Edition

Preface

Introduction

Roots of the Nineteenth-Century

Art Machine Artist as Learned Man

Triumph of the Royal Academy Paris

The Magnet Genesis of the Dealers Critics'

Emergence Persistence of Guild Patterns

Notes

The Machine in Flower Government

Patronage and the New Elite Training

Official Route to Success

The Education of Hippolyte

Flandrin Realities of Training

The Salon Proving Ground

The Prestige of French Painting

A Small Army

The Home Guard Dividing the Spoils Notes

A New System Emerges

Change in Social Context

Changing Techniques and the Artist's Role

A Glut in Search of a Market Canvases vs. Careers

Subject Matter, Styles, and Markets

The Dealer-Critic System

Individual Careers and the New System

Decay of the Academic System

Might-Have-Beens Francois Bonvin

Between Two Systems

Notes

The Impressionists Their Roles in the New System

"For Fear of Remaining a Nonentity"

Official Training--and Alternatives

First Meetings and Working Relationships

A Piece of a Meaning

To Instruct the Public

Critic as Theorist

The Critic as Publicist and Ideologue

The Dealer as Speculator

The Dealer as Patron "It's a Wonderful Business Being a Bourgeois--without a Cent!"

Manet's Sales Pissarro's Finances Monet's Money

An Expendable Weapon

The Group Show Impressionists and the Dealer-Critic System

Notes

Conclusions

Afterword to the 1993 Edition

Index

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