Academic Portrait Prints
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.
Early 20th Century Academic Portrait Prints
Crayon, Engraving
17th Century Academic Portrait Prints
ABS, Woodcut
2010s Academic Portrait Prints
Canvas
1820s Academic Portrait Prints
Engraving, Paper
1960s Academic Portrait Prints
Etching
Mid-20th Century Academic Portrait Prints
Engraving
Early 1900s Academic Portrait Prints
Engraving
1830s Academic Portrait Prints
Lithograph
1840s Academic Portrait Prints
Lithograph
1830s Academic Portrait Prints
Lithograph
1830s Academic Portrait Prints
Lithograph
1970s Academic Portrait Prints
Paper, Engraving
16th Century Academic Portrait Prints
Ink, Laid Paper, Engraving
1930s Academic Portrait Prints
Woodcut
Mid-18th Century Academic Portrait Prints
Ink, Laid Paper, Engraving
Early 2000s Academic Portrait Prints
Canvas, Giclée
Late 18th Century Academic Portrait Prints
Engraving, Etching
Mid-19th Century Academic Portrait Prints
Engraving
Mid-19th Century Academic Portrait Prints
Engraving
Late 18th Century Academic Portrait Prints
Engraving, Etching
Early 20th Century Academic Portrait Prints
Woodcut, Engraving
Mid-19th Century Academic Portrait Prints
Engraving
Late 18th Century Academic Portrait Prints
Engraving, Etching
Early 20th Century Academic Portrait Prints
Etching, Paper
Early 20th Century Academic Portrait Prints
Paper, Etching
Early 20th Century Academic Portrait Prints
Etching, Paper
1930s Academic Portrait Prints
Paper, Etching
1830s Academic Portrait Prints
Lithograph
1830s Academic Portrait Prints
Lithograph
1830s Academic Portrait Prints
Lithograph
Academic Portrait Prints
Mezzotint