; ) refers to a number of influential

art school An art school is an educational institution with a primary focus on practice and related theory in the visual arts and design. This includes fine art – especially illustration, painting, contemporary art, sculpture, and graphic design. T ...

s in France. The term is associated with the Beaux-Arts style in architecture and city planning that thrived in France and other countries during the late nineteenth century and the first quarter of the twentieth century. The most famous and oldest is the in

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

, now located on the city's

left bank In geography, a bank is the land alongside a body of water. Different structures are referred to as ''banks'' in different fields of geography. In limnology (the study of inland waters), a stream bank or river bank is the terrain alongsid ...

across from the

Louvre The Louvre ( ), or the Louvre Museum ( ), is a national art museum in Paris, France, and one of the most famous museums in the world. It is located on the Rive Droite, Right Bank of the Seine in the city's 1st arrondissement of Paris, 1st arron ...

, at 14 rue Bonaparte (in the 6th arrondissement). The school has a history spanning more than 350 years, training many of the great artists and architects in Europe. Beaux-Arts style was modeled on classical "

antiquities Antiquities are objects from antiquity, especially the civilizations of the Mediterranean such as the Classical antiquity of Greece and Rome, Ancient Egypt, and the other Ancient Near Eastern cultures such as Ancient Persia (Iran). Artifact ...

", preserving these idealized forms and passing the style on to

future generations Future generations are Cohort (statistics), cohorts of hypothetical people not yet born. Future generations are contrasted with current and past generations and evoked in order to encourage thinking about intergenerational equity. The Moral agenc ...

History

The origins of the Paris school go back to 1648, when the was founded by Cardinal Mazarin to educate the most talented students in drawing, painting, sculpture, engraving, architecture and other media.

Louis XIV LouisXIV (Louis-Dieudonné; 5 September 16381 September 1715), also known as Louis the Great () or the Sun King (), was King of France from 1643 until his death in 1715. His verified reign of 72 years and 110 days is the List of longest-reign ...

was known to select graduates from the school to decorate the royal apartments at

Versailles The Palace of Versailles ( ; ) is a former royal residence commissioned by King Louis XIV located in Versailles, Yvelines, Versailles, about west of Paris, in the Yvelines, Yvelines Department of Île-de-France, Île-de-France region in Franc ...

, and in 1863,

Napoleon III Napoleon III (Charles-Louis Napoléon Bonaparte; 20 April 18089 January 1873) was President of France from 1848 to 1852 and then Emperor of the French from 1852 until his deposition in 1870. He was the first president, second emperor, and last ...

granted the school independence from the government, changing the name to "". Women were admitted beginning in 1897. The curriculum was divided into the "Academy of Painting and Sculpture" and the "Academy of Architecture". Both programs focused on classical arts and architecture from Ancient Greek and Roman culture. All students were required to prove their skills with basic drawing tasks before advancing to figure drawing and painting. This culminated in a competition for the ''Grand Prix de Rome'', awarding a full scholarship to study in Rome. The three trials to obtain the prize lasted for nearly three months. Many of the most famous artists in Europe were trained here, including Géricault,

Degas Edgar Degas (, ; born Hilaire-Germain-Edgar De Gas, ; 19 July 183427 September 1917) was a French people, French Impressionism, Impressionist artist famous for his pastel drawings and oil paintings. Degas also produced bronze sculptures, Print ...

, Delacroix, Fragonard, Ingres, Moreau, Renoir, Seurat, Cassandre, and Sisley.

Rodin François Auguste René Rodin (; ; 12 November 184017 November 1917) was a French sculptor generally considered the founder of modern sculpture. He was schooled traditionally and took a craftsman-like approach to his work. Rodin possessed a u ...

however, applied on three occasions but was refused entry.

Paul Cézanne Paul Cézanne ( , , ; ; ; 19 January 1839 – 22 October 1906) was a French Post-Impressionism, Post-Impressionist painter whose work introduced new modes of representation, influenced avant-garde artistic movements of the early 20th century a ...

applied twice but was turned down. Bernard was suspended for stylistic "errors". The buildings of the school are largely the creation of French architect Félix Duban, who was commissioned for the main building in 1830. His work realigned the campus, and continued through 1861, completing an architectural program out towards the Quai Malaquais. The Paris school is the namesake and founding location of the Beaux Arts architectural movement in the early twentieth century. Known for demanding classwork and setting the highest standards for education, the École attracted students from around the world—including the United States, where students returned to design buildings that would influence the history of architecture in America, including the

Boston Public Library The Boston Public Library is a municipal public library system in Boston, Massachusetts, founded in 1848. The Boston Public Library is also Massachusetts' Library for the Commonwealth (formerly ''library of last recourse''), meaning all adult re ...

, 1888–1895 ( McKim, Mead & White), the Supreme Court of the United States, (Cass Gilbert, Cass Gilbert Jr., and John R. Rockart), and the

New York Public Library The New York Public Library (NYPL) is a public library system in New York City. With nearly 53 million items and 92 locations, the New York Public Library is the second-largest public library in the United States behind the Library of Congress a ...

, 1897–1911 ( Carrère and Hastings). Architectural graduates, especially in France, are granted the title ''élève''. The architecture department was separated from the École after the May 1968 student strikes at the Sorbonne. The name was changed to . Today, over 500 students make use of an extensive collection of classical art coupled with modern additions to the curriculum, including photography and hypermedia.

Institutions

* ENSA École nationale des beaux arts de

Dijon Dijon (, ; ; in Burgundian language (Oïl), Burgundian: ''Digion'') is a city in and the Prefectures in France, prefecture of the Côte-d'Or Departments of France, department and of the Bourgogne-Franche-Comté Regions of France, region in eas ...

* ENSA École nationale des beaux arts de

Bourges Bourges ( ; ; ''Borges'' in Berrichon) is a commune in central France on the river Yèvre (Cher), Yèvre. It is the capital of the Departments of France, department of Cher (department), Cher, and also was the capital city of the former provin ...

* ENSBA École nationale supérieure des beaux-arts de Lyon * European Academy of Art (EESAB) in Lorient, Rennes, Quimper, and Brest * ESADMM École supérieure d'art et de design Marseille-Méditerranée * ENSA École nationale des beaux arts de Nancy * (ENSBA), Paris * ESAD , Valence * EBABX École supérieure des beaux-arts de

Bordeaux Bordeaux ( ; ; Gascon language, Gascon ; ) is a city on the river Garonne in the Gironde Departments of France, department, southwestern France. A port city, it is the capital of the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region, as well as the Prefectures in F ...

École supérieure d'art , Dunkerque - Tourcoing (Esä)

Dunkirk Dunkirk ( ; ; ; Picard language, Picard: ''Dunkèke''; ; or ) is a major port city in the Departments of France, department of Nord (French department), Nord in northern France. It lies from the Belgium, Belgian border. It has the third-larg ...

& Tourcoing

Notable instructors, Paris

* Marina Abramović * Pierre Alechinsky * Mirra Alfassa * Louis-Jules André * Antoine Berjon * François Boisrond * Christian Boltanski * Léon Bonnat * Duchenne de Boulogne * Jean-Marc Bustamante * Alexandre Cabanel * Pierre Carron * César * Jean-François Chevrier * Claude Closky * Jules Coutan * Leonardo Cremonini * Richard Deacon * Aimé-Jules Dalou * Paul Delaroche * Lin Fengmian * Louis Girault * Fabrice Hybert * François Jouffroy * Victor Laloux * Paul Landowski * Jean-Paul Laurens *

Charles Le Brun Charles Le Brun (; baptised 24 February 1619 – 12 February 1690) was a French Painting, painter, Physiognomy, physiognomist, Aesthetics, art theorist, and a director of several art schools of his time. He served as a court painter to Louis XIV, ...

* Michel Marot *

Annette Messager Annette Messager (born 30 November 1943) is a French visual artist. She is known for championing the techniques and materials of outsider art. In 2005, she won the Golden Lion Award at the Venice Biennale for her artwork at the French pavilion, F ...

* Gustave Moreau * Jean-Louis Pascal * Auguste Perret, * Emmanuel Pontremoli * Charles-Caïus Renoux * Paul Richer * Ary Scheffer * Louis Sullivan, American architect, left after one year * Pan Yuliang

Notable alumni, Paris

* David Adler, architect, American * Wahbi al-Hariri, architect, artist, American-Syrian * August Friedrich Schenck, painter, French/German * Nadir Afonso, painter * Mardiros Altounian, architect, Armenian * Rodolfo Amoedo, painter * Émile André, architect, French * Paul Andreu, French architect, 1968 graduate * Théodore Ballu, architect * Myron G. Barlow, painter, American * Frederic Charles Hirons, architect, American * Edward Bennett, architect, city planner * Jules Benoit-Levy, painting * Étienne-Prosper Berne-Bellecour, painter * Robert Bery, painter * Alexander Bogen, painter * Wim Boissevain, painter, Dutch-Australian * Maurice Boitel, painter * Pierre Bonnard, painter * Jacques Borker, tapestry designer, painter, sculptor, French artist. * Joseph-Félix Bouchor, painter *

William-Adolphe Bouguereau William-Adolphe Bouguereau (; 30 November 1825 – 19 August 1905) was a French Academic art, academic painter. In his realistic genre paintings, he used mythological themes, making modern interpretations of Classicism, classical subjects, with a ...

, painter * Antoine Bourdelle, sculptor, French * Louis Bourgeois, architect, French Canadian * George T. Brewster, sculptor, American * Bernard Buffet, painter * Carlo Bugatti, designer and furniture maker, Italian * John James Burnet, architect * Alexandre Cabanel * Duncan Candler, architect, American * Paul Chalfin, painter and designer, American * Charles Frédéric Chassériau, architect, French * Alfred Choubrac, poster artist and costume designer, French * Léon Choubrac, illustrator and poster artist, French * Araldo Cossutta, architect, Yugoslavian-American * Suzor-Coté, painter * Henri Crenier, sculptor * John Walter Cross, architect, American * Cyrus Dallin, sculptor, American *

Jacques-Louis David Jacques-Louis David (; 30 August 1748 – 29 December 1825) was a French painter in the Neoclassicism, Neoclassical style, considered to be the preeminent painter of the era. In the 1780s, his cerebral brand of history painting marked a change in ...

, painter * Gabriel Davioud, architect * Marie-Abraham Rosalbin de Buncey, painter, French * Edgar Degas, painter, French * Eugène Delacroix, painter, French * Jenny Eakin Delony, painter, American * Constant-Désiré Despradelle, architect, French * Hanna Eshel, (1926–2023), sculptor, Israeli-American * Henry d'Estienne painter, French * Félix Duban, architect, French * Thomas Eakins, painter, American * Pierre Farel, painter, French * Ernest Flagg, architect, American *

Jean-Honoré Fragonard Jean-Honoré Fragonard (; 5 April 1732 (birth/baptism certificate) – 22 August 1806) was a French painter and printmaker whose late Rococo manner was distinguished by remarkable facility, exuberance, and hedonism. One of the most prolific art ...

, painter, French *

Yitzhak Frenkel Yitzhak Frenkel (; 1899–1981), also known as Isaac Frenkel or Alexandre Frenel, was an Israeli painter, sculptor and teacher. He was one of the leading Jewish artists of the School of Paris, l’École de Paris and its chief practitioner in Is ...

, Israeli French painter, father of modern Israeli art * Meta Vaux Warrick Fuller, sculptor, painter, poet, American * Fang Ganmin, painter, Chinese * Charles Garnier, architect, French * Tony Garnier, architect, French * Adrien Étienne Gaudez, sculptor, French * Théodore Géricault, painter, French * Heydar Ghiaï-Chamlou, architect, Iranian * Georges Gimel, painter, French * Charles Ginner, painter * Louis Girault, architect, French * Hubert de Givenchy, fashion designer * André Godard, designer of

University of Tehran The University of Tehran (UT) or Tehran University (, ) is a public collegiate university in Iran, and the oldest and most prominent Iranian university located in Tehran. Based on its historical, socio-cultural, and political pedigree, as well as ...

main campus * Philip L. Goodwin, designer of the

Metropolitan Museum of Art The Metropolitan Museum of Art, colloquially referred to as the Met, is an Encyclopedic museum, encyclopedic art museum in New York City. By floor area, it is the List of largest museums, third-largest museum in the world and the List of larg ...

* Alan Gourley – painter and stained glass artist * Jean Baptiste Guth, portrait artist * Emmeline Halse, sculptor * L. Birge Harrison, painter * Thomas Hastings, architect, American * Robert Henri, painter and teacher, American * George W. Headley, jeweler, designer, American. * Yves Hernot, Painting, photographer * Auguste Alexandre Hirsch, painter, lithographer, French * Frank Howell Holden, architect, American * Raymond Mathewson Hood, architect, American * Mary Rockwell Hook, architect, American * Henry Hornbostel, architect, American * Richard Morris Hunt, architect, American * Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres, painter, French * Tove Jansson, painter and illustrator, Finnish * Sadik Kaceli, painter, Albanian * Mati Klarwein, painter * Constantin Kluge, painter, Russian * György Kornis, painter, Hungarian * Gaston Lachaise, sculptor, French-American * Victor Laloux, architect, French * Charles Landelle, painter, French * Jules Lavirotte, architect, French * Paul Leroy painter, French * Charles-Amable Lenoir painter, French * Stanton Macdonald-Wright, painter, American * Joseph Margulies, painter * Albert Marquet, painter, French * William Sutherland Maxwell, architect * Bernard Maybeck, architect, American *

, installationist, multi-media * Jean-François Millet, painter, Norman * Yasuo Mizui, sculptor, Japanese * Gustave Moreau, painter, French * Julia Morgan, architect, American * Ngo Viet Thu, architect, Vietnamese * Victor Nicolas, sculptor, French * Francisco Oller, painter, Puerto Rican * Ong Schan Tchow (alias Yung Len Kwui), painter * Pascual Ortega Portales, painter, Chilean * Alphonse Osbert, painter, French * J. Harleston Parker, architect, American * Jean-Louis Pascal, architect * André Pavlovsky, architect * Albert Pennoyer, artist and soldier in the Monuments Men * Georges Petetin, painter, French * Albert Pissis, architect * Théophile Poilpot, painter, French * John Russell Pope, architect, American * Robert Poughéon, painter, French * Fernand Préfontaine, architect and art critic, Canadian * Edmond Jean de Pury, painter, Swiss * S. H. Raza, painter, Indian * Neel Reid, architect, American * Pierre-Auguste Renoir, painter * Arthur W. Rice, architect, American * Gustave Rives, architect * Cécilia Rodhe, sculptor * James Gamble Rogers, architect, American * Kanuty Rusiecki, painter, Polish *

Augustus Saint-Gaudens Augustus Saint-Gaudens (; March 1, 1848 – August 3, 1907) was an American sculpture, sculptor of the Beaux-Arts architecture, Beaux-Arts generation who embodied the ideals of the American Renaissance. Saint-Gaudens was born in Dublin to an Iris ...

, sculptor, American *

John Singer Sargent John Singer Sargent (; January 12, 1856 – April 15, 1925) was an American expatriate artist, considered the "leading portrait painter of his generation" for his evocations of Edwardian era, Edwardian-era luxury. He created roughly 900 oil ...

, painter, American * Bojan Šarčević, sculptor * Louis-Frederic Schützenberger, painter, French * Georges Seurat, painter, French * Joann Sfar, designer * Amrita Sher-Gil, painter, Indian * Nicolas Sicard painter, French * Högna Sigurðardóttir, architect, Icelandic * Alfred Sisley, painter * Clarence Stein, designer * Yehezkel Streichman, painter * Lorado Taft, sculptor * Agnes Tait, painter, lithographer * Vedat Tek, architect, Turkish * Albert-Félix-Théophile Thomas, architect * Edward Lippincott Tilton, architect, American *

Roland Topor Roland Topor (7 January 1938 – 16 April 1997) was a French illustrator, cartoonist, comics artist, painter, novelist, playwright, film and TV writer, filmmaker and actor, who was known for the surrealism, surreal nature of his work. He was of Po ...

, designer * George Oakley Totten Jr., architect, American * Morton Traylor, painter, American * Guillaume Tronchet, architect * Christos Tzivelos, Greek artist * Valentino, fashion designer * William Van Alen, architect * Vann Molyvann, architect, Cambodian * Gisèle d'Ailly van Waterschoot van der Gracht, artist, Dutch * Lydia Venieri, painter, Greek * Jesús Carles de Vilallonga, painter, Spanish * Carlos Raúl Villanueva, architect * Lucien Weissenburger, architect * Yan Wenliang, painter, Chinese * Norval White, architect, American * Ivor Wood, animator and director, Anglo-French * Alice Morgan Wright, sculptor, American * Marion Sims Wyeth, architect, American * Jack Youngerman, painter, American * Georges Zipélius, illustrator, French * Jacques Zwobada, sculptor, French of Czech origins

References

External links