MSU HA 446 - The Politics of the ke'glement
Course Ha 446-
Pages 31

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The Politics of theke'glementA__ ---- _.. .tors.Throughout the nineteenth century, the Ex-hibition of the Works of Living Artists,which was popularly called the Salon, re-mained the most important venue for the displayand reception of contemporary art. Opening inParis in the spring, the exhibition put severalthousand works on view - paintings, sculptures,drawings, and prints - in the Palais de1'Industrieon the right bank of the Seine (Figurei).Screenedby a jury and installed by the administration offine arts, the objects in the Salon were spreadthrough some twenty rooms, and over a six-weekperiod, attracted hundreds of thousands of visi-By thei86os,the Salon had become an enor-mous and problem-ridden exhibition. As the prac-tice of art grew increasingly democratic, the Salonhad broadened in its constituency and spiraledupward in size - from485works ini8oi,tonearly two thousand works during the182os,andto between four and five thousand works in thei86os.1Even by the standards of the late twenti-eth century, this was a staggering number of ob-jects to engage, and one can only imagine thedeadening experience that viewing the Salon musthave been: room after room of artworks wereheaped together on the thin organizing principleof the alphabet, creating a conglomeration of ob-jects that filled the walls to some thirty feet abovethe ground. The gigantism of the exhibition hadre~achedsuch proportions that whether there werethlree thousand or five thousand works, thenum-berwas far too great to be comfortably viewed.Complicating the situation was the economicrolethat the Salon played in shaping an artist'sca eer.Although complaints about its size wereuniversal,it remained the most importantcom-mrcialvenue for the visual arts. Private galleriesexisted at the middle of the nineteenth century(F gure 2), but though they were fast becomingreputableestablishments, they could not competewith the Salon in terms of the size of the audienceor the impact on public response. Whereas anex-hilition installed by Louis Martinet or PaulDIIrand-Ruelmight draw a thousand viewers andattract a few short notices in the press, this re-sp rise could not compare with the massive publicanthe extensive reviews that the Salon received.hen the artists who became known as "theImpressionists"first attempted to exhibit theirworks,itwas to the Salon that they necessarilytuned. Most of them made their debut in themi186os,the year1866being the first time thatallOfthe group's major figures submitted paint-ing to the Salon. They entered a situation thatwaoften described as resembling a "civil war,"andlthey became quickly identified ascontribu-tors)to thefray.2Through the period covered bythis study, the latei86osand the earlyi870s,Im-pre~sionistworks gathered an increasingly politi-CHAPTER ONE2Figurei.Palais de1'Industrie,c.1855.(©clicheBibcal charge; their makers werecharacterizedl~las"rebels," "radicals," or "insurgents," despite hefact that there was very little that was overtly o-litical about the works.In approaching the subject of modernist pas t-ing at the Salons of the later186os,this chap erbegins with an analysis of the structure of the(-ministrationof fine arts, the agency that settheregulations for the Salon. Then, because so mayof the Salon's rules had deeper implications,thediscussion turns to a close reading of therege-ment,the official statement of the rules.In~lasense, the detailed exegesis of the regulations b -comes an argument in its own right: for it was nEARLYIMPRESSI6NISMAND THE FRENCH STATE~iothequeNationale de France, Paris.)this document that the politics of government be-came the politics of art.In thei86os,the art world was a tightly struc-tured microcosm of political life in the SecondEmpire. Through a complex network of inter-related agencies, every aspect of thesnakingandexhibiting of art came under control of the ad-ministration of fine arts. The vertical chain ofcommand, the framework that gave order to thenumerousofficialbureaux,had a brilliant simplic-ity to its distribution of power, and several ad-ministrators held virtually complete responsibilityfor establishing the country's policies. Thoughterms like "the government," "the state," "theadministration" evoke the image of some enor-mous bureaucratic machine run by legions offunctionaries who were nameless, faceless, and in-terchangeable, the reality was very different. Pow-er was firmly located in the upper levels of theministry of fine arts, and artistic policy was set bya small group of men who sought little counseloutside their ownbureaux.As the government was then organized, astraight line of command extended from thethrone of Napoleon III into the upper echelons ofthe administration of fine arts. Heading thisbranch of the cabinet was the minister of fine arts,who was directly appointed by Napoleon III andFigure2.Rooms in the Photographic Establishment ofM. Legray, 35, boulevard des Capucines, 1856. (©clicheBibliothequeNationale de France, Paris.)THE POLITICS OFTHEREGLEMEN'TFigure3.Portrait of lemarechalVaillant.Le Mondeillrstre,15June1872.(Photo: Author.)whb- like all ministers under the Second Empirefnctionedas an instrument of imperial powerrat~erthan an independent, autonomousexecu-torf3In 1866,Jean-Baptiste-Phil1bertVaillant(Figure3) filled this role, which then carried thetitlMinistre de la maison del'empereuret desbeaux-arts(Minister of the Imperial House and ofthe(FineArts). Reporting to Vaillant were boththe etwork of national museums - or "imperial"mueums,as they were called under the SecondEmpire - and the various agencies that constitut-edtheoffice of fine arts.Directlybeneath Vaillant, and actuallyformu-latingmuch of the administration's policy, wasAlfr~d-Emilien,comte de Nieuwerkerke (Figure4).Aman of Dutch origin, and supposedlyde-scenldedfrom an illegitimate offspring ofHol-landPsHouse of Orange, Nieuwerkerke had stud-34ied sculpture in thei840sand hadexhibitedatthe Salon. However, it was hiswell-known]alli-ance with the Princesse Mathilde thatbecamethedetermining factor in his career. When hercousinLouis-Napoleon became president of theSecondRepublic, he named Nieuwerkerke toheadthemuseum administration, under whoserubrictheSalon fell. Nieuwerkerke held the position(Intil1863,when his powers were greatlyenhatineand he was given the title Superintendent of tineArts. In a bureaucratic reorganization that wasequated with a coupd'etat,the variousfinelartsoffices were centralized and brought moredirectlyunder


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MSU HA 446 - The Politics of the ke'glement

Course: Ha 446-
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