Ingres, Self-portrait.
École des Beaux-Arts ("School of Fine Arts") is the name of a group of influential art schools in France. The most famous is the École nationale supérieure des beaux-arts, currently located on the left bank of Paris, across the Seine from the Louvre, in the 6th arrondissement. The school has a history that spans over 350 years, training many of the greatest artists in Europe. The Beaux Arts style was modeled after classic antiques, preserving these idealized forms and conveying the style to future generations.
The origins of the school date back to 1648, when the Academy of Fine Arts was founded by Cardinal Mazarino to educate the most talented students in drawing, painting, sculpture, engraving, architecture and other media. Louis XIV selected graduates of this school to decorate the royal apartments at Versailles and in 1863, Napoleon III guaranteed the independence of the school from the government, changing the name to the École des Beaux-Arts. Women were admitted after 1897.
The curriculum was divided into "Academy of Painting and Sculpture" and "Academy of Architecture", but both programs focused on the classical arts and architecture of Ancient Greece and Rome. All students were required to prove their ability with basic drawing tasks, before advancing in the drawing of figures and painting. This culminated in a competition for the Rome Prize, which allowed a scholarship to study in Rome. The three rounds to obtain the prize lasted almost three months [1]. Among the famous artists who were educated there are Géricault, Degas, Delacroix, Fragonard, Ingres, Monet, Moreau, Renoir, Seurat and Sisley, among many others.
The buildings of the school are to a large extent the creation of the French architect Felix Duban, who undertook the main building in 1830, realigning the campus, and until 1861 completing an architectural program towards the Quai Malaquias.
wiki
