Academic Art
ACADEMIC STYLE
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.
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Style: Academic
Dusk from the Tomb of Lorenzo di Piero de'Medici - Original Ink Drawing
Located in Chicago, IL
This particular drawing is a study of the sculpture at the Medici Chapel in Florence, Italy. The artist creates a true to life representation of the sculpture in question by incorp...
Category
21st Century and Contemporary Academic Art
Materials
Paper, Pen
Dog Portrait Jack Russell Terrier by Pierre-Albert Laplanche (French, 1826-1873)
Located in SANTA FE, NM
Bronze Dog Portrait of a Terrier
Pierre-Albert Laplanche (French, 1826-1873)
Signed in script to base "Laplanche"
Stamped "E.V 3753"
8 x 2.75 x 8 1/4 inches
This is a superb and se...
Category
Mid-19th Century Academic Art
Materials
Bronze
Dante & Virgilus - Etching, (Ed. Goupil, 1897)
Located in Paris, FR
ARTISTE: after Auguste RODIN
TITLE : Dante & Virgilus
MEDIUM : Etching/photogravure after the original drawing
SIGNATURE : Unsigned
YEAR : 1897
PAPER : Vellum
SIZE : 13 x 10"
INFOR...
Category
1890s Academic Art
Materials
Etching
Mid-18th-Century French School, Portrait Of A Gentleman With A Sealed Missive
Located in Cheltenham, GB
This mid-18th-century French oil painting depicts a sophisticated gentleman holding a sealed missive.
With an enigmatic expression, he stands assuredly. Right hand held under his ja...
Category
1750s Academic Art
Materials
Canvas, Oil
Original Le Puy En Velay, SNCF vintage travel poster
Located in Spokane, WA
Admiring the Original "Le Puy En - Velay" Vintage Poster The exquisite vintage poster for the old city of Le Puy En - Velay has inspired many art aficionados. Created by artist Phil...
Category
1940s Academic Art
Materials
Lithograph
Edouard Detaille (1848 1912), A soldier at attention, Original Drawing
Located in Paris, FR
Edouard Detaille (1848-1912)
A soldier at attention
dated 1879 and dedicated to his brother Henri (see below)
17.5 x 6.5 cm
Signed with the monogramm lower right
The paper is slighlt...
Category
1880s Academic Art
Materials
Ink
Classic Still Life with Fan and Flowers
Located in Larchmont, NY
Still Life, 20th Century
Oil on board
Sight: 16 1/4 x 19 in.
Framed: 19 3/4 x 22 1/4 x 1 in.
Category
20th Century Academic Art
Materials
Oil, Board
A View of Rotterdam Harbor, with Grote of Sint-Laurenskerk in the distance
By James Webb
Located in Farmers Branch, TX
A View of Rotterdam Harbor, Holland ( 1876 )
Dimensions: 30 x 50 inches
Medium: Oil on canvas
Signed and dated 1876
Provenance: Sale, Sotheby’s, New York, 17 October 1991, lot 289; P...
Category
1870s Academic Art
Materials
Oil
Warlingham Village Fair, Surrey
By James Edward Meadows
Located in Farmers Branch, TX
Two Artists working closely together -
James Edward Meadow (1828 - 1888) and Edward Willaims (1781 - 1885)
Warlingham Village, Surrey
Medium: Oil on canvas
Dimensions: 30 x 48 inch...
Category
1890s Academic Art
Materials
Oil
Luke
Located in MADRID, ES
In this portrait of a young man I wanted to show feelings of boredom and frustration held in check. Created with pastel pencils on recycled kraft paper.
Category
2010s Academic Art
Materials
Pastel
View of Capri, Italy
Located in PARIS, FR
August Wilhelm LEU
(Munster, 1819 – Seelisberg, 1897)
View of Capri
Oil on canvas
Signed and dated lower right
49 x 70 cm
1882
Born March 24, 1819 in Munster, Germany, Auguste Leu...
Category
Late 19th Century Academic Art
Materials
Oil
George Kellaway After Thomas Stewardson, Lady In Costume Playing The Mandolin
Located in Cheltenham, GB
This early 19th-century stipple engraving by George Kellaway (fl. 1821-1828) is after a painting by Thomas Stewardson (1781-1859).
She turns and looks towards the heavens with hair ...
Category
1820s Academic Art
Materials
Engraving, Paper
Spanish painting Portrait man Trace signature Academic 19th oil on canvas
Located in PARIS, FR
Juan Pablo SALINAS (Attributed to)
Madrid, 1871 – Rome, 1946
Oil on canvas on a panel
34 x 22 cm (43 x 31 cm with the frame)
Trace of signature lower lef...
Category
Late 19th Century Academic Art
Materials
Oil
Olga
Located in MADRID, ES
I wanted to capture the fierce gaze of the young woman in this portrait. Created with colour pencil on recycled kraft paper.
Category
2010s Academic Art
Materials
Color Pencil
Luisina
Located in MADRID, ES
The curved figure and shadow created an unusual composition in this drawing, inspired by model Luisina. Created with pastel pencils on recycled kraft paper.
Category
2010s Academic Art
Materials
Pastel
Harriet
Located in MADRID, ES
I wanted to capture the fierce gaze of the young woman in this portrait. Created with colour pencil on recycled kraft paper.
Category
2010s Academic Art
Materials
Color Pencil
Nice To Meet You
Located in Seoul, KR
Furry friends always stay around us and bring joy and happiness.
A Young Lee uses powder pigments and Jangji (Korean Paper) that maximize the depiction of soft fur and a warm feelin...
Category
2010s Academic Art
Materials
Found Objects, Pigment, Mulberry Paper
A Summer Day We Spent Together
Located in Seoul, KR
Furry friends always stay around us and bring joy and happiness.
A Young Lee uses powder pigments and Jangji (Korean Paper) that maximize the depiction of soft fur and a warm feelin...
Category
2010s Academic Art
Materials
Acrylic, Mulberry Paper
You're My Angel
Located in Seoul, KR
Furry friends always stay around us and bring joy and happiness.
A Young Lee uses powder pigments and Jangji (Korean Paper) that maximize the depiction of soft fur and a warm feelin...
Category
2010s Academic Art
Materials
Pigment, Mulberry Paper
One Day In The Spring
Located in Seoul, KR
Furry friends always stay around us and bring joy and happiness.
A Young Lee uses powder pigments and Jangji (Korean Paper) that maximize the depiction of soft fur and a warm feeling...
Category
2010s Academic Art
Materials
Pigment, Mulberry Paper
Daytime, marble sculpture
Located in PARIS, FR
"Daytime" by James PRADIER (1790-1852)
Rare sculpture made in white Carrara marble
France
circa 1840
height 100 cm
diameter of base 29 cm
Listed in "Catalogue raisonné, James Pradi...
Category
1840s Academic Art
Materials
Marble
Lost and Found by Arthur Drummond
Located in New Orleans, LA
Arthur Drummond
1871-1951 | British
Lost and Found
Signed and dated “Drummond, 1903” (middle right)
Oil on canvas
A sentimental narrative of early Edwardian life, this expertly re...
Category
Early 20th Century Academic Art
Materials
Canvas, Oil
Portrait Painting Oil on Canvas by Joseph Badger
Located in Rome, IT
Joseph Badger (c. 1707–1765) was a portrait artist in Boston, Massachusetts, in the 18th century.
This amazing painting depicting a young boy with a bi...
Category
18th Century Academic Art
Materials
Oil
A Sylvan Toilette -- ca. 1898
Located in Washington, DC
Exhibited:
Society of American Artists, New York, 1898
Intimate Revelations: The Art of Carroll Beckwith, Berry-Hill Galleries, New York, 1 December 1999-15 January 2000, no. 49
Li...
Category
1890s Academic Art
Materials
Canvas, Oil
Flowering Iris & Other Botanicals: Framed 17th C. Besler Hand-colored Engraving
Located in Alamo, CA
This is a hand-colored copper-plate engraving entitled "I. Spatula foetida - II. Caucalis Dodonei - III. Cruciata", depicting three flowering plants, including an Iris, from Basilius Besler's landmark work, Hortus Eystettensis (Garden at Eichstatt), first published in 1613 in Eichstatt, Germany near Nuremberg and later in 1640 and 1713.
This beautiful hand-colored botanical engraving is presented in a gold-colored wood frame with a French mat...
Category
Mid-17th Century Academic Art
Materials
Engraving
The Guardians Of The Temple By Ferdinand Keller
By Ferdinand Keller
Located in New Orleans, LA
Ferdinand Keller
1842-1922 German
The Guardians of the Temple
Monogrammed and dated on the plinth at the left “FK 1884”
Oil on canvas
Paint...
Category
19th Century Academic Art
Materials
Canvas, Oil
Untitled (Cafe Interior), Shimshon Holzman
Located in Fairfield, CT
Artist: Shimshon Holzman (1907-1986)
Title: Untitled (Cafe Interior)
Year: 1962
Medium: Watercolor and graphite on wove paper
Size: 27.75 x 19.75 inches
...
Category
1960s Academic Art
Materials
Watercolor, Graphite
Nils Emil Anckers, Frigate In Stormy Water, Etching
Located in Cheltenham, GB
A large early 20th-century etching of a frigate in stormy waters battered by the elements. It’s a fine piece, which is full of drama, energy and atmosphere.
Housed in a good contemporary frame and glazed.
Established in 2017, Brave Fine Art...
Category
Early 1900s Academic Art
Materials
Paper, Etching
“India, 1912”
Located in Southampton, NY
Original watercolor and gouache on paper of a busy street scene in India done in 1912 by the American artist, William Henry Drake. Copyrighted signed and dated 1912 lower left. Cond...
Category
1910s Academic Art
Materials
Paper, Watercolor, Gouache
Feeding the Kittens - Little cat mother -
Located in Berlin, DE
Ernst Albert Fischer-Cörlin (1853 Körlin - 1932 Persante). Feeding the Kittens, 1893. Pencil on painting cardboard, 38 x 29 cm. Signed and dated by the artist at lower left "E[rnst] A[lbert] Fischer=Cörlin 1893".
- Lightly stained, somewhat dusty and minimally foxed.
- Little cat mother -
About the artwork
Daughter, mother and grandmother gather in the sunlight to feed a litter of kittens. The mother and grandmother hold the lively, playful animals in their arms, while the young girl feeds two of the four kittens with cookies. There is also a small bucket of milk and a bowl of milk. The women and the girl watch as the cute, still blind animals eat.
It is a scene taken from everyday life, but it also has an allegorical dimension, bringing maternal care into the representation. Three generations are represented, with the grandmother and the mother already mothers. They not only offer the kittens to the youngest, but also proudly observe the maternal care that the youngest gives to the kittens. Like the kittens, she will grow up and become a mother herself, so the image is also an allegory of life's ever-new beginnings. In keeping with this, the morning sun shines into the picture from the right. Fischer-Cörlin has masterfully worked out the quality of the light, with its light and dark areas, with the pencil used...
Category
1890s Academic Art
Materials
Cardboard, Carbon Pencil
John Da Costa, Reflections After The Ride, Antique Oil Painting
Located in Cheltenham, GB
This early 20th-century oil painting by British artist John Da Costa (1866-1931) depicts two figures dressed in riding gear within a country house interior.
Looking towards a famili...
Category
1910s Academic Art
Materials
Oil, Paper
Painting SCHIRMER Oil German landscape romantic painter 19th century Switzerland
Located in PARIS, FR
August Wilhelm Ferdinand SCHIRMER (Attribué à)
Berlin, 1802 - Nyon (Suisse), 1866
Oil on canvas
41 x 56 cm (48 x 63,5 cm with the frame)
Signed at lower right with a monogram and dat...
Category
1850s Academic Art
Materials
Oil
Accademic Study of Male Nude Soldier with Spear. XIX Century
Located in Firenze, IT
Drawing of the male nude.
Late 19th century
Drawing on lightly colored paper.
In very good condition.
The drawing depicts a standing young man posing for an academic study of the n...
Category
19th Century Academic Art
Materials
Paper, Charcoal
JACOB 19th French academic painting elegant woman interior mandoline player
By Stephen Jacob
Located in PARIS, FR
Stephen JACOB 1846 -? Oil on panel Merchant stamp on the verso "DUBUS" active in Paris between 1877 and 1896
40 x 30 cm Signed on the top rightStephen Jacob"
Stephen Jacob studied with Ange Tissier, a famous painter...
Category
Late 19th Century Academic Art
Materials
Oil
LAURENS French romantic Drawing 19th century pencil Departure children mountain
Located in PARIS, FR
Jules LAURENS Carpentras (Vaucluse), 1825 - Saint-Didier (Vaucluse), 1895 Pencil 29 x 23 cm (36 x 30 cm with frame) Signed and dated lower left "JL / 52" Modern frame Excellent condi...
Category
1850s Academic Art
Materials
Pencil
“Untitled”
Located in Southampton, NY
Original oil on canvas landscape with mountains and large lake by the Lebanese born artist, Assad Ghosn. Signed lower right. Circa 1920. Condition is good. The painting is housed in...
Category
1920s Academic Art
Materials
Canvas, Oil
Gio Taking Off His Singlet (Portait of a Young Wrestler by Mark Beard)
By Mark Beard
Located in Hudson, NY
Academic style figurative portrait painting of a handsome young man against a grey background
"Gio Taking Off His Singlet", By Mark Beard as Bruce Sargeant (pseudonym in homage to the fashion photographer, Bruce Weber, and figurative painter, John Singer Sargent)
14 x 11 inches
18.5 x 15.5 inches framed
Excellent condition
Signed by the artist, upper left "B. Sargeant"
This vertical, portrait painting of a young man was made by Mark Beard under his fictitious artistic persona, Bruce Sargeant. Painted in a modern Academic style, the handsome man is posed stoically against a pale grey background as he gingerly removes his wrestling singlet...
Category
2010s Academic Art
Materials
Canvas, Oil
A pair of early 20th Century drawings of Neo-Classical hero by Hildegard Miller
Located in Petworth, West Sussex
Hildegard Miller (British, 19th / 20th Century)
Studies of a Neo-Classical Hero
Signed ‘HILDEGARD BMB MILLER’ (lower right)
Crayon and light chalk
15.3/4 x 11.5/8 in. (40 x 29.7 cm.)...
Category
20th Century Academic Art
Materials
Paper, Chalk, Crayon
French official Navy painter BOURGAIN Late 19th Street view Cairo Egypt 1880s
Located in PARIS, FR
Gustave BOURGAIN Paris, 1856 - Paris, 1921 Oil on paper 33 x 24 cm (44 x 35cm with frame) Signed above right "G. Bourgain" Excellent condition
Gustave studied with Jean-Léon Gérôme ...
Category
1880s Academic Art
Materials
Oil
Woman portrait
By Ilse Voigt
Located in Geneva, CH
Oil on canvas with wooden frame. Total size with frame is 88x109 cm
Ilse VOIGT is an artist born in 1905 and died in 1997. His works have been sold at public auction 24 times, mostl...
Category
1940s Academic Art
Materials
Oil
PLAUZEAU Painting Oil canvas French Academic Portrait of boy Early 20th century
Located in PARIS, FR
Alfred PLAUZEAU Avanton-Paché (Vienna), 1875 - Hendaye, 1918 Oil on oil 61 x 38 cm (75.5 x 52.5 cm with frame) Signed lower right "A. Plauzeau" Good condition (sevreal restoration, w...
Category
Early 20th Century Academic Art
Materials
Oil
A Poor Roman Boy By Elisabeth Jerichau-Baumann
Located in New Orleans, LA
Elisabeth Jerichau Baumann
1819-1881 Polish-Danish
A Poor Roman Boy
Signed and dated “Elisabeth Jerichau Roma 1879”
Oil on canvas
Captivating and deeply touching, this signed oil...
Category
19th Century Academic Art
Materials
Canvas, Oil
Italian beginning 19th oil canvas oval Mythological Bacchus and Apollon child
Located in PARIS, FR
Italian school from the beginning of the 19th century Oil on canvas (2) 99 x 65 cm (103 x 78 cm with the frame) Old frames with gadroons and palmette decoration Excellent condition
...
Category
Early 19th Century Academic Art
Materials
Oil
“Storm Surf”
By Alexander Dzigurski
Located in Southampton, NY
Original oil on canvas painting of a California storm surf painting by Alexander Dzigurski Signed lower right. Circa 1960. Condition is very good. Wonderful light and realism of the...
Category
1960s Academic Art
Materials
Canvas, Oil
Jean Cocteau
Located in Geneva, CH
Bronze sculpture by Mario Napoli, Swiss artist from XXth century. His works was sold 12 times in auctions since 2022. Work signed in the bronze. Edition 1/8
Category
21st Century and Contemporary Academic Art
Materials
Bronze
Orson Wells
Located in Geneva, CH
Bronze sculpture by Mario Napoli, Swiss artist from XXth century. His works was sold 12 times in auctions since 2022. Work signed in the bronze. Edition 6/8
Category
21st Century and Contemporary Academic Art
Materials
Bronze
Marlène Dietrich
Located in Geneva, CH
Bronze sculpture by Mario Napoli, Swiss artist from XXth century. His works was sold 12 times in auctions since 2022. Work signed in the bronze. Edition 7/8
Category
21st Century and Contemporary Academic Art
Materials
Bronze
Greta Garbo
Located in Geneva, CH
Bronze sculpture by Mario Napoli, Swiss artist from XXth century. His works was sold 12 times in auctions since 2022. Work signed in the bronze. Edition 7/8
Category
21st Century and Contemporary Academic Art
Materials
Bronze
James Dean
Located in Geneva, CH
Bronze sculpture by Mario Napoli, Swiss artist from XXth century. His works was sold 12 times in auctions since 2022. Work signed in the bronze. Edition 1/8
Category
21st Century and Contemporary Academic Art
Materials
Bronze
Arletty, Leonie Bathiat
Located in Geneva, CH
Bronze sculpture by Mario Napoli, Swiss artist from XXth century. His works was sold 12 times in auctions since 2022. Work signed in the bronze. Edition 1/8
Category
21st Century and Contemporary Academic Art
Materials
Bronze
Alfred Gomersal Vickers, River Landscape With Church, Watercolour
Located in Cheltenham, GB
This early 19th-century watercolour by British artist Alfred Gomersal Vickers (1810 - 1837) depicts a landscape with a church, probably in Russia or Poland.
Standing on the banks of...
Category
1830s Academic Art
Materials
Paper, Watercolor
Narcissus. Bronze. Fonderia Gemito Napoli. First half of XX century
Located in Firenze, IT
Narcissus.
Bronze by Vincenzo Gemito.
First half of the 20th century.
It bears an inscription Proprieta Artistica 45
there is a stamp of the foundry: ...
Category
Early 20th Century Academic Art
Materials
Bronze
“Tsingtao, China 1912”
Located in Southampton, NY
Original watercolor and gouache on paper of a Tsingtao, China street scene in 1912 executed by the American illustrator, William Henry Drake. Copyrighted and signed and dated 1912 lo...
Category
1910s Academic Art
Materials
Paper, Watercolor, Gouache
“Seaside Picnic”
Located in Southampton, NY
Original oil on canvas painting of a bucolic seaside picnic with a mother and her young children. Signed by the artist, F. G. Grust lower left. Condition is very good. The painting is housed in a period style gold leaf frame in fine condition. Overall framed measurements are 31.5 by 41.75 inches. Provenance: A California estate.
F. G. Grust was a Dutch painter born in 1889 who was best known for his domestic interior and exterior scenes of a mother with her young children. He is the son of artist Theordor Grust (1859 - 1909), who also painted Dutch genre...
Category
1920s Academic Art
Materials
Canvas, Oil
Formal Portrait of a Chinese Man in Traditional Dress
Located in Miami, FL
Dressed in traditional clothing, a handsome Chinese man is depicted as he sits resolutely with one hand on his leg and the other holding a baton. Female Artist Joyce Ballantyne...
Category
1940s Academic Art
Materials
Canvas, Oil
Painting Belgian 19th animal painter VERBOECKHOVEN woodLandscape cow sheperdess
By Eugène Verboeckhoven
Located in PARIS, FR
Eugène VERBOECKHOVEN Warneton, 1798 – Schaerbeek, 1881 Oil on wood panel 42 x 33.5 cm (58 x 50 cm with the frame) Signed, dated and located lower right “EJ Verboeckhoven / 1826 / à G...
Category
1820s Academic Art
Materials
Oil
Peonies in a Blue Vase
Located in Washington, DC
One of three still-life paintings by the French flower painter Germain-Theodore Ribot.
Category
Late 19th Century Academic Art
Materials
Canvas, Oil
Feeding the Young
By Edmund Adler
Located in Washington, DC
A rural interior scene by Austrian artist Edmund Adler. The scene is typical of Adler's paintings of Austrian culture and rural life. It is full of gemütlichkeit.
Category
1930s Academic Art
Materials
Canvas, Oil
Academic art for sale on 1stDibs.
Find a wide variety of authentic Academic art available for sale on 1stDibs. Works in this style were very popular during the 21st Century and Contemporary, but contemporary artists have continued to produce works inspired by this movement. If you’re looking to add art created in this style to introduce contrast in an otherwise neutral space in your home, the works available on 1stDibs include elements of purple, blue, red, orange and other colors. Many Pop art paintings were created by popular artists on 1stDibs, including Mark Beard, Owen Jones, Paul Jones b.1921, and John James Audubon. Frequently made by artists working with Paint, and Oil Paint and other materials, all of these pieces for sale are unique and have attracted attention over the years. Not every interior allows for large Academic art, so small editions measuring 1.5 inches across are also available. Prices for art made by famous or emerging artists can differ depending on medium, time period and other attributes. On 1stDibs, the price for these items starts at $50 and tops out at $885,000, while the average work sells for $1,556.
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