Academie Des Beaux-Arts
"Le dejuner sur l'herbe" By Edouard Manet
The Academie des Beaux-Arts was founded in 1684 by Cardinal Mazarin. The main purpose of the academie was to educate the most talented students in drawing, painting, sculpture, engraving, architecture and other media. The ecole (school) attracted students from around the world including the united states. The Academie des Beaux-Arts put number of standards for art work to be accepted. It refused several impressionists' works because they did not meet its standards. The most famous rejection was that of Edouard Manet's "Le dejuner sur l'herbe". It is a painting that shows nude woman with two fully dressed men in rural setting. According to le salon des refusees and the Academie des Beaux-Arts it was a shameful painting and inappropriate.
Salon des Refusés
In 1863, there was another exhibition called "Salon des Refuses" which was composed of paintings and sculptures that were rejected by the official Salon. "Les refusees" brought up more attention than the original exhibition and gave the perfect dais for the displaying new impressionist art to the audience. In 1874 some of the artists organized an alternative exhibition in the studio of the Parisian photographer, Nadar. A journalist from the magazine "Le Chavari" wrote an article about this exhibition and its title was "The Exhibitions of the Impressionists" which was meant to ridicule the artists but it was well taken by them and the public, therefore it stayed like that.