Abstract

The field of art market studies is based on a famous opposition, coined by Harrison and Cynthia White in 1965, regarding the “academic” system, as opposed to the “dealer-critic” one. Published in 1965, their book, Canvases and Careers, Institutional Change in the French Painting World, was qualified by Patricia Mainardi and Pierre Vaisse, but their criticism dated back to the 1990s. In the meantime, the development of digital methods makes possible a broader reassessment of Harrison and Cynthia White’s theory. Based on a corpus of Parisian auction sales, from 1831 through 1925, this paper uses econometrics to call into question the antagonism between the academic and the dealer-critic system, and comes to another conclusion: the academic system was crucial to determine the value of artworks and its efficiency did not collapse in the 1870s, nor in the 1880s, but rather after the Great War.

Highlights

  • In the field of art market studies, Harrison and Cynthia White’s book Canvases and Careers, Institutional Change in the French Painting World, appears as a foundation stone for any paper

  • For Harrison and Cynthia White, the dealer-critic system appeared as a rival of the Academic one, the former replacing the latter between the 1850s and the 1870s (White and White 1965, pp. 2, 151)

  • The expansion of the Parisian art market does not necessarily mean that the Salon stopped acting as a taste-maker and gate-keeper

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Summary

Introduction

In the field of art market studies, Harrison and Cynthia White’s book Canvases and Careers, Institutional Change in the French Painting World, appears as a foundation stone for any paper. The artist had to be received at the School of Fine Arts, enter the spiral of competitions—the Rome Prize was the ultimate stage—and make himself known to the public by participating in the Salon. This exhibition was a token of recognition: a jury decided on admissions and rewarded the “best” artworks with first-, second- and third-class medals.. The Salon captured the attention, caused ink to flow in the press and constituted a commercial place where the State and collectors could buy the works on display It was even the main supply source of artworks for the French public authorities

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