Prix de Rome

Prix de Rome. A scholarship, founded concurrently with the French Academy in Rome (1666), that enabled prizewinning students at the Académie Royale de Peinture et de Sculpture in Paris to spend a period (usually 3–5 years) in Rome at the state's expense, engaged in study and creative work. The award soon acquired great prestige and was regarded as a stepping stone to the highest honours. Competition rules were complex and they varied over the years, but as many as six painters and four sculptors might be staying as prizewinners in Rome at any one time (prizes for architects were added in the 18th century and for engravers and musicians in the 19th century). In some years, the Grand Prix was not awarded, as none of the entrants was thought good enough, but lesser prizewinners could still qualify to stay in Rome. The rules were sometimes bent; in 1752 Fragonard won the Grand Prix even though he was not a student at the Académie.

In painting, as many as 100 students might enter for the Prix de Rome each year, but this number was reduced by preliminary tests to a maximum of ten finalists for the competition proper. The finalists had to make an oil sketch on an allotted subject (always something from the Bible or ancient history) and then were given ten weeks to produce a full-scale picture from this (a standard-sized canvas was used, measuring roughly 1 × 1.5 m (3 × 5 ft)). They had to work in individual supervised rooms, to prevent them from receiving outside help and to keep their work secret from their rivals. The winner was decided by a vote of all the members of the Académie Royale. Unsuccessful competitors could try again; J.- L.David won at the fifth attempt (his fourth as a finalist) in 1774.

After a hiatus during the French Revolution, the Prix de Rome continued under the auspices of the École des Beaux-Arts, which effectively replaced the Académie, and it maintained its prestige well into the 19th century. However, in the 20th century it came to be regarded as a relic from another age and it was abolished in 1968. Similar scholarships have been awarded by other academies, including the Royal Academy in London.