Two major French art schools, which played a key-role in the evolution and development of European plastic arts at the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century, Academie Colarossi and Academie Julian were more, much more that simple institutions where art teachers prepared the future painters and sculptors. No, they were bohemian and artistic spaces, very liberal and avantgarde oriented, which were also opened to women.
Academie Colarossi was founded in 1815 by Suisse and later bought by Filippo Colarossi, a former model, then a sculptor, who wanted to open such an art school for young artists who couldn't afford to pay classes at the official and conservative Ecole des Beaux-Arts. This was meant to be a place of freedom, a place to paint and learn, to discover new techniques, themes, artists. It welcomed female artists, put the accent on working on live models, especially nude ones, and never disregarded any avantgarde and new ideas. After moving in 1870 in Montparnasse, the Colarossi Academy remained one of the most successful, eventually surpassed only by the Academie Julian. Very popular and high in demand, it would also have the first ever female teacher, Frances Hodgkins, herself an artist, who began teaching here in 1910. Unfortunatelly, by the beginning of the 20th century, the school had lost most of it's fame and was closed down by 1920, by the widow of Colarossi. She also destroyed much of the archives, unfortunatelly. The most famous artist who ever attented Academie Colarossi was, without a doubt, Amedeo Modigliani.
The Academie Julian was a much more popular and some say even better alternative to the Ecole des Beaux-Arts. It had better teachers, more famous students and a better name. Founded in 1868 by the French painter Rodolphe Julian, it would become over the following decades one of the most appreciated art schools in France, and by 1890 it already had over 600 students. An impressive figure, even in our times. While Julian might not have been a good artist, he proved to be a good businessman. The Academie Julian was a bohemian space, where you met your coleagues, you attended classes, you learned tricks and techniques. It was the place of the avantgarde, the place for modernists, impressionists and so on, but also the place where amateur artists and women were more than welcomed. You could just come here to practice, working in the studios of the school, even if painting or sculpture was just a hobby.
Many foreign students also preffered studying here, because it was much cheaper and they didn't have to take the French language test required for the Ecole des Beaux-Arts. The Academie Julian still exists today, under a different name, but much of it's former glory is lost.
August 2008
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