Patron Of The Arts: As A Reflection Of A New Perspective Of The 19th Century French Art

Art patronage, as a social behavior has developed in synchrony with art development. The history of patrons'aesthetic consciousness and interest evolution is also an art history. Art patronage has greatly influenced artists and art development. The development of French art in the 19th century was also inextricably tied up with art patronage. This paper probed into the French art of the 19th century in terms of art patronage, and sought to research into the spirit implicated in the western art by analyzing government patronage as well as individual patronage. This paper focused on the influence of art patronage on art style and art spirit.This paper is constituted by the following four parts. In the first part, the right definition of patron for the special period of the 19th century was generalized by listing and analyzing different definitions of the term "patron". The methods and phenomena of patronage rising in this period and the relationship between patrons and artists were also involved in the first part. Government patronage mainly discussed in the second part analyzed the patronage methods and patronage institutes by concentrating on the aesthetic instinct and the aesthetic taste of French government patronage in the 19th century. The positive and negative effects of government patronage on art development were generalized based on the facts that the French government sought to dominate the direction of art development and unify the aesthetic criteria of the public by building art schools, setting up art prizes and institutes and creating art salons. This part also interpreted originally the right reasons for the government supporting Academicism and defeating the avant-garde. Individual patronage was mainly dealt with in the third part, in which patronage methods and patronage places were research into to prove that appropriate internal and external environment. had been cultivated in France, in which individual patronage affected art development. The fourth part mainly discussed that art subjects, art styles and art estheticism had been innovated, influenced by individual patronage. The patrons were mainly the emerging bourgeoisie in the 19th century in France, and individuals took the place of the royal and the nobles to be the major part of patrons especially in the later part of the period. When defeated by the government, the avant-garde was greatly supported by individual patronage, which made the avant-garde succeed to continue the unique art style of novelty and break through the traditional art restriction to make a prosperous achievement. In short, the French art development in the 19th century was discussed in terms of patronage in this paper to fill the research gap of this field. This paper could also give some enlightenment to modern art development and state patronage policies on art.