The Prix de Rome: Images of Authority and Threshold of Official Success

Abstract

The PRIX DE ROME—the phrase scarcely retains the aura of magic it once possessed. Yet the fierce competition, the implacable envy, and sleepless anxiety surrounding the contests still carry a lesson for the present epoch. It is indeed the first Academy Award, except that it is difficult to imagine a nineteenth-century Marlon Brando refusing to accept it. In any event, I feel very privileged to have the opportunity to discuss this institution, and I thank John Dobkin and the National Academy of Design for their Prix de New York, which made it possible.