Topic summary
Art academy
Extracted from the Wikipedia article Art school.
France
The oldest art academy in France is Paris Fine Art School, established in 1648 by Charles Le Brun, and most present public art schools are over two centuries old: Nancy (1708), Toulouse (1726), Rouen (1741), etc. Some of those schools were called academies and were prestigious institutions, devoted to the education of great painters or sculptors. Others were called "école gratuite de dessin" (free school for drawing) and were devoted to the education of arts and craft artists.