Robert Gildea, Children of the Revolution

The Context of the Arts in the Late 19th Century

The  successful  writer, artist  or musician at  the end  of the nineteenth century had  access  to three  indispensable resources.  The  first was connections and patronage,

which could   further  a career, and might be provided  by an influential salon in Paris or official recognition  in the annual Salon  sponsored by the Academie des Beaux Arts or  by the  prizes  and membership of the Academie  Française.  The second  was the dialogue, comradeship and support that could be offered by fellow writers and  artists, who  often met in favourite cafes and restaurants and reviewed  each other's work in journals and newspapers. Conflict between  different approaches was common, a sense of  betrayal was rife, and  friendships often came to a bitter end, but all this  was  grist to the  mill of literary,  artistic  and musical innovation.  The third  was public  recognition and a market for their work in the growing consumer society. Not every writer or artist had access to all three resources. Official recognition in the Salon or Academie Française was  generally  confined to those  who subscribed to the classical French canon as laid down by those institutions and did not seek  radical or  avant-garde approaches.  Avant-garde writers and artists scorned fficial institutions and  canons, or at least affected to do so. They  also affected  to scorn the demands of the mass market, which they denounced as ignorant and philistine,  although they could not entirely eschew  the  oxygen of  publicity and  the income to live. For a mass  culture  was developing, which  was  something different from both  elite culture and popular culture: a culture demanded by a largely urban  society, shaped  by mass education and craving instruction and entertainment more  than cultivation, and supplied by a mass media  of books,  newspapers, universal  exhibitions,  music halls, cinemas, sports stadiums and  race tracks.  Classical and avant-garde or modern art and the mass consumer society were locked in a tension, but the art, literature and bohemian  lifestyle of Paris were themselves becoming national assets,  widely commented  upon in Europe and America and drawing in foreign writers, artists  and  tourists.