Even before public and private art museums proliferated in Europe during the 19th century, artists illustrated the sites where art was made, exhibited, and sold. They reacted to the popularity of emerging public venues for art, and the excitement these sites generated about seeing, discussing, and collecting art. Beyond the familiar and visually rich subject of the artist’s studio, artists explored the academy’s exhibition spaces and classrooms, the auction house, commercial galleries, and the collector’s cabinet. Some draftsmen faithfully rendered these spaces, recording the details and interactions of an art world that was rapidly expanding and becoming increasingly international. In contrast, others used these places as the premise for a fantasy picture or a symbolic meditation on the greater significance of art production and appreciation.

The emergence of more new spaces for art had broad economic and social implications. Consequently, within this genre of images, great attention was paid to depictions of both artists and collectors. The images featured here consistently present artists as worthy of respect, emphasizing that they worked with their minds and not just with their skilled hands. They often appear dressed like wealthy gentleman, not lowly workers sullied by paint, printer’s ink, or dust. Connoisseurs are depicted as worldly brokers of cultural influence—or satirized as fools who squint at details rather than appreciate the entire work as the artist had intended.

Elizabeth Kathleen Mitchell, PhD, Burton and Deedee McMurtry Curator, and Director of the Curatorial Fellowship Program