Painting as a career in eighteenth-century Paris

The thesis notes the marked reduction during the course of the 18th century in the number of painter members of the Académie Royale de Peinture et de Sculpture whose antecedents or siblings were also artists. It goes on to discuss the changing social status of painters and relates this to the increasing emphasis on the 'génie' of the individual artist, the commencement of regular Salon exhibitions and of associated Salon criticism.