Ecole des Beaux-Arts (Paris)

Ecole des Beaux-Arts. The Beaux-Arts de Paris, formally the École nationale supérieure des beaux-arts, is a French grande école whose primary mission is to provide high-level fine arts education and training. The art school, which is part of the Paris Sciences et Lettres University, is located on two sites: Saint-Germain-des-Prés in Paris, and Saint-Ouen.

The Parisian institution is made up of a complex of buildings located at 14 rue Bonaparte, between the quai Malaquais and the rue Bonaparte. This is in the heart of Saint-Germain-des-Prés, just across the Seine from the Louvre museum.

The school was founded in 1648 by Charles Le Brun as the famed French academy Académie royale de peinture et de sculpture. In 1793, at the height of the French Revolution, the institutes were suppressed.

However, in 1817, following the Bourbon Restoration, it was revived under a changed name after merging with the Académie d’architecture. Held under the King’s tutelage until 1863, an imperial decree on November 13, 1863 named the school’s director, who serves for a five-year term.

Long supervised by the Ministry of Public Instruction, the École des Beaux-Arts is now a public establishment under the Ministry of Culture.

The Beaux-Arts de Paris is the original of a series of Écoles des beaux-arts in French regional centers. Since its founding in 1648, the Académie royale de peinture et de sculpture has had a school, France’s elite institution of instruction in the arts.