Quelle légitimité pour les peintres en miniature ? Le petit format à l’épreuve des discours académiques

Abstract

This article examines the discourses held in France on the art of miniature, from the founding of the Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture in 1648 until the end of the July Monarchy in 1848. Under the Old Regime, miniature painters, even the most famous, were most often confined to the margins of official artistic circles and away from public recognition, for lack of full legitimacy of their practice. However, under the French Revolution, things changed in favour of small format specialists. The weakening of the dogma of the hierarchy of the genres, the abolition of the Academy and the opening, from 1791 on, of the Salon of painting and sculpture to all artists – and no longer only to academicians – enabled miniaturists to gain unprecedented recognition from the greatest number. This possibility occurred at a time when the growing demand for portraits created the conditions for the development of a market which allowed many miniature painters to live from their work, but also to gain artistic legitimacy primarily based on public and critical suffrage. This new situation was reinforced under the Directory and the Empire but with the foundation of the Academy of Fine Arts during the Restoration, the specialists of the small format were relegated to their subordinate position in the hierarchy of values.

Keywords

• Miniature
• portrait
• miniaturist
• Academy
• Institute
• Old Regime