ABSTRACT

The Republic had eliminated the Royal Academy although Napoleon created a new one, which ruled over French art during the entire nineteenth century and had proclaimed the Louvre as the new temple of artistic training, where young painters could learn for themselves by copying old masters of their choice. This was due to the bad opinion revolutionaries had of academic art, whose corruption they put down to the hierarchical training system used in these institutions, which forced students to follow the style of their teachers. Instead, each of them should freely choose which masterpieces to copy at museums. Thus, the Romantic exaltation of personality gave the highest regard to this activity, which had been strictly prohibited in the previous gallery opened at the Luxembourg in 1750, but was a priority in the founding objectives of the Muse des Artistes Vivants. Museum provision in France did not change much with the restoration of monarchy either in Paris or in the provinces.