Why go
Paris connects major artistic movements to particular institutions and districts. The Académie royale de peinture et de sculpture formalised artistic training under the monarchy, while 19th- and early-20th-century artists turned the city into a meeting point for Impressionism, Cubism and other movements. That long arc helps museum collections and former artist quarters make more sense.
The full story
Painting and sculpture in Paris developed through both official patronage and restless artistic communities. Italian artists influenced Parisian sculpture and relief work in the 16th and 17th centuries, while the French monarchy commissioned artists to decorate royal palaces. In 1648, the Académie royale de peinture et de sculpture was founded and became France’s leading art school until 1793. Royal artists including Girardon, Coysevox, Coustou and Pierre Mignard belonged to that courtly world. The city’s artistic identity changed sharply in the 19th and early 20th centuries. Manet, Monet, Berthe Morisot, Gauguin and Renoir were among the artists associated with Paris, while Romanticism, Impressionism, Art Nouveau, Symbolism, Fauvism, Cubism and Art Deco developed there. Montmartre and Montparnasse became centres of production and exchange. Picasso lived in Montmartre when he painted La Famille de Saltimbanques and Les Demoiselles d’Avignon between 1905 and 1907, tying a familiar Paris district to a major shift in modern art.