Academic Figurative Drawings and Watercolors
During the Renaissance, the first European fine art academies were established in Italy and would guide the style and standards of visual culture in the following centuries. Academic art became dominant across the continent in the 17th century, with artists coming together to offer instruction in this style of painting and sculpture.
The academic art period represented a significant change from the previous era when painters, sculptors and other artists were part of guilds and seen more as artisans than purveyors of culture. While patronage from the elite and the church remained pivotal, young artists were able to support themselves for the first time through academic exhibitions and an independent marketplace. The leading academies included the French Académie Royale de Peinture et de Sculpture founded in Paris in 1648 (which became the Académie des Beaux-Arts after the French Revolution) and the London Royal Academy of Arts formed in 1768 under the inaugural leadership of painter Joshua Reynolds.
Academy students sketched drawings based on prints, sculptures and, finally, live models. Movements including neoclassicism and romanticism were particularly popular in these art schools and institutions where the influence of Raphael and Nicolas Poussin was prominent. Beaux Arts architecture and furniture design drew on these movements, too, and, as they also originated at the Académie des Beaux-Arts, the disciplines share common ground with academic painting and sculpture.
Although academic art was a major shift for artistic status when it began, by the middle of the 19th century it was viewed as stodgy and resistant to new ideas, with the subject matter of artists such as William-Adolphe Bouguereau and Jean-Léon Gérôme generally limited to allegorical or mythological themes. Impressionism, realism and the other movements that engaged with contemporary issues that followed were direct reactions to the academic tradition, although it continued to inform the avant-garde as artists like Gustav Klimt and Pablo Picasso started their practices as academic realists.
Find a collection of academic paintings, sculptures, prints and more art on 1stDibs.
1770s Academic Figurative Drawings and Watercolors
Pencil
18th Century Academic Figurative Drawings and Watercolors
Paper, Pastel, Pencil
1780s Academic Figurative Drawings and Watercolors
Gouache, Paper, Chalk, Graphite, Watercolor
20th Century Academic Figurative Drawings and Watercolors
Paper, Watercolor, Pencil
21st Century and Contemporary Academic Figurative Drawings and Watercolors
Crayon, Paper, Conté
19th Century Academic Figurative Drawings and Watercolors
Pencil, Paper
19th Century Academic Figurative Drawings and Watercolors
Steel
2010s Academic Figurative Drawings and Watercolors
Other Medium, Archival Paper, Handmade Paper, Pen, Felt Pen, Permanent M...
Mid-19th Century Academic Figurative Drawings and Watercolors
Paper, Pencil, Color Pencil
1930s Academic Figurative Drawings and Watercolors
Paper, Watercolor, Pencil
1880s Academic Figurative Drawings and Watercolors
Paper, Chalk, Pencil
2010s Academic Figurative Drawings and Watercolors
Chalk, Conté, Graphite
1940s Academic Figurative Drawings and Watercolors
Paper, Gouache
1890s Academic Figurative Drawings and Watercolors
Carbon Pencil
19th Century Academic Figurative Drawings and Watercolors
Paper, Chalk, Pencil
18th Century Academic Figurative Drawings and Watercolors
Chalk, Pencil, Paper
1780s Academic Figurative Drawings and Watercolors
Chalk
Mid-18th Century Academic Figurative Drawings and Watercolors
Watercolor, Engraving
1780s Academic Figurative Drawings and Watercolors
Watercolor, Gouache
1790s Academic Figurative Drawings and Watercolors
Ink