Arts management is allegedly originated from the United States’ consumer movement during the 1950’s, with a view to promoting consumers’ accessibility to the art works. A century earlier, in 19th century France, a comparable artistic event took place ...
Arts management is allegedly originated from the United States’ consumer movement during the 1950’s, with a view to promoting consumers’ accessibility to the art works. A century earlier, in 19th century France, a comparable artistic event took place concerning Jean-François Millet(1814-1875)’s artwork : Death and the woodcutter, on which this study is mainly focused.
When Millet’s Death and the woodcutter was refused at the Salon de 1859, arose an organized and systematic movement in French arts’ community against this unjust happening. Even not being named as ‘art management, this movement showed the essential elements of arts management. In fact, arts management’s principal functions are recognized in the process of this movement : planning, organizing, supervising and control.
During the movement, the role of an art institute was played by Gazette des Beaux-Arts, and that of art manager by Charles Blanc(1813-1882), head of the movement.
Charles Blanc planed, organized, supervised and controlled practical tasks of publishing an artistic review on the Salon. He wanted to make public and draw attention on how absurd the refusal of Death and the woodcutter is. He requested Paul Mantz, a Millet expert, of the review to be published on the same page with the print of Death and the woodcutter. It was unprecedented in French art magazine history to publish the refused work’s print, which made a great echo.
Additionally, they were supported by famous authors such as Alexandre Dumas, Théophile Gautier, and influential critics like Maxime Du Camp, Théophile Silvestre. They published one after another favorable art reviews on Millet’s works. Not only the artists, but also the writers recognized the aesthetic value of Death and the woodcutter, which embodying Les Fables of Jean de La Fontaine(1621-1695), and actively showed support to the work of Millet. In 1890, when the first exhibition of Death and the woodcutter was held in Paris, Gazette des Beaux-Arts spotlighted again this master piece’s originality and excellency through Théophile Gautier’s review.
After this ‘art management’ carried out by Gazette des Beaux-Arts, Millet’s status was shifted up once for all. In 1860, he made a 3-year contract with a Belgian art merchant. It relieved him of pecuniary pressure for the first time in his career. In 1864, he was awarded with the 1st class medal at the Salon, and decorated with the Légion d’honneur in 1868. Millet’s case exemplifies well how necessary and important arts management could be for art works.