The Ecole des Beaux-Arts

The Concert by Jan Vermeer, 1665

The Ecole des Beaux-Arts, or School of Fine Arts, resides in Paris. It grew out of the Academie des Beaux-Arts which was formed by Cardinal Mazarin in 1648. Its purpose was to educate the most talented students in drawing, painting, architecture, and sculpture. The curriculum was divided into the "Academy of Painting and Sculpture" and the "Academy of Architecture" and focused on the classical arts from ancient Greek and Roman culture. It was a most rigorous five-year program with students having to prove their skills with basic drawing tasks before advancing to figure drawing and painting.

Students first drew from engravings, also called "drawing from the flat." When they had this mastered they moved on to drawing from plaster casts ("drawing in the round"), then finally progressing to drawing from live models.

The Ecole was steeped in tradition and produced classical painters which we are familiar from the French and Italian Renaissance. It's great attraction was that instruction at the Ecole was free, making it possible for students from all social backgrounds to attend. In 1863, Napoleon granted the Ecole independence from the government and women were finally admitted in 1897.

King Louis XIV selected graduates from the Ecole to decorate the royal apartments at Versailles.

Students usually began their studies between the ages of 15 and 18 years of age. The art student's day began early, around 7 am, where they practiced drawing until around 1 pm. The afternoons were spent in the painting and drawing collections of the Louvre, making copies from the Old Masters. This was a crucial element in the Ecole program. Copying was intended to familiarize students with the techniques of the past, and to inspire them to emulate the ideas and devices of the great masters. Advanced students began drawing again around 4 pm and worked until dark.

This training, largely forgotten in art schools of the present United States, was able to produce artists the likes of which we may never see again.

Just paint it!