On the relationship between the artist and the Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture in France of the XVIII century. Jean-Honore Fragonard (1732-1806).

Abstract

The subject of the study is the issue of interaction between the artist – J.O. Fragonard - and an influential official institution, such as the Paris Academy of Painting and Sculpture in the XVIII century. From the standpoint of historical sociology and psychology, the author discusses why, having achieved significant success, won the Rome Prize and received the title of appointed, the artist preferred to move away from the Academy and deliberately refused to build an academic career. Analyzing the reasons for such a decision, the author draws on historical sources that allow to obtain data on the private life of the master, his relations with teachers, academic authorities, customers of various categories. Reconstructing the artistic environment of Paris of the period under consideration, the author places his hero in a broad cultural context, without which it is impossible to understand Fragonard's place among his predecessors and contemporaries. Of course, the author constantly checks with scientific works, where the problems of interest to him are touched upon. For the first time in Russian historiography, the author examines in detail the main facts of the biography of J.O. Fragonard in the context of his relations with the Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture. However, the principal novelty of the study lies in the attention to how a new type of personality is formed in the French artistic environment of the middle of the XVIII century, unlike the type prevailing at the end of the previous century. Artists from the time of the foundation of the Royal Academy sought first of all to separate themselves from the craft environment, to prove their belonging to the creative elite and their equality with the advanced Italian masters. Now, the defense of creative freedom, including from the Royal Academy, comes to the fore, the search for one's own path, which is not always compatible with an academic career. According to the author, the experience of creative freedom gained by such Rococo masters as J.-O. Fragonard turned out to be especially important for the further development of French art.