Edouard Manet (1832-1883)
Le Chemin de Fer (The Railroad)
1872-73 (170 Kb); Oil on canvas, 93 x 114 cm (36 1/2 x 45 in); National Gallery of Art, Washington
DAY 5: Today is Tuesday, June 7th, and we move to nineteenth century Paris and London to examine the decline of the French and British
Academies and the rise of the art dealer. Read an excerpt from Harrison C. White and Cynthia White's Canvases and Careers: Institutional
Change in the French Painting World (University of Chicago Press, 1996) to learn about the crucial role of the art dealer and the art critic in
what they have termed "the dealer-critic system". It is through the dealer-critic system and the storied careers of dealers such as Ernest
Gambart, Joseph Duveen and Durand-Ruel that the art market begins to operate on an international scale between France and England (and
later to the United States). In your response to the reading below, discuss the crucial role of the dealer-critic system using an example of an
artist, a critic, a work of art or a dealer.
Readings
Harrison C. White and Cynthia A. White, Canvases and Careers : Institutional Change in the French Painting World
ARTH 4696 FINLEY A New System Emerges WHITE WHITE.pdf
Petra Ten-Doesschate Chu, "The Lu(c)re of London: French Artists and Art Dealers in the British Capital, 1859-1914", in Monet's London : Artists Reflections on the Thames, 1859-1914 (St. Petersberg and Uitgeverij: Museum of Fine Arts, St. Petersberg and Snoeck, 2005), 39-54.
ARTH 4696 FINLEY The Lu(c)re of London.pdf
Recommended:
Pamela M. Fletcher and Anne Helmreich, "The Periodical and the Art Market: Investigating the Dealer-Critic System in Victorian England", Victorian Periodicals Reviews, 41:4, Winter 2008, 323-346.
ARTH 4696 FINLEY Periodical and the Art Market FLETCHER HELMREICH.pdf
Meryle Secrest, Duveen : A Life in Art (*Note: This is a Cornell Networked resource*)
Individual Contributions
Vincent Anthony Falkiewicz
Erica Gilbert-Levin
The rise of dealer-critic system in 19th-century Europe represented both the result and reinforcement of the shift from the European art world and its market from a hierarchical one concentrated primarily in the Academy to a decentralized configuration consisting of "isolated" artists (White & White, 82) whose work was capitalized upon by dealers, who, functioning "in conjunction with" critics, "accomplished the detailed task of building up an artist in a specific circle of patrons" (White & White, 94). Critics filled the responsibility of generating publicity and establishing the intellectual legitimacy of the artist (not to mention of the critics themselves), while dealers effected the sales, and all three players – critic, dealer, and artist – benefited financially from the arrangement.
The emergence of the new system reflected a shift in the socioeonomic status of the buyers from aristocratic to middle-class. The transformation effectively rendered art a more inclusive domain, allowing for more participation across classes and geographical areas: "Dispersion of buying power was a central reality of the new situation to which the dealer-critic system could adapt much more effectively than the centralized official machine. [...] There were enough, and sufficiently varied, potential buyers so that one had to think in terms of markets rather than individuals" (White & White, 94).
The emphasis within the dealer-critic system revolved around the career of the artist rather than the artist's individual works. This benefited the artist, who could, consequently, be assured of secure and "predictable" income and thus a middle-class lifestyle (White & White, 98), and the dealer, who could forge a "monopoly of an artist's production" (White & White, 99). The dealer duo Durand-Ruel trail-blazed this strategy early on, brazenly buying up artists' work and making it effectively impossible for another dealer to intrude on their terrain. The strategy worked – for both Durand-Ruel, who discovered young artists, including the late-19th-century Impressionists, supported them with the aid of publicity afforded by critics, and profited from their monopoly over their discovery (see Chu). 
Above, the Durand-Ruel father-son dealer duo
Kimberly Ann Phoenix
Consider & comment:
What did you think of today's readings and wiki features? What issues if any did they raise for you? How did the audio visual material provided support your understanding of this topic? Comment on your classmates' posts. Leave your comments in the box below.