GRAND PRIX DE ROME

also called Prix De Rome, any of a group of scholarships awarded by the French government to enable young French artists to study in Rome. It is so named because the students who win the grand, or first, prize in each artistic category go to study at the Acadmie de France in Rome. The grands prix were established in the 17th century and were still being awarded in the late 20th century. As part of his official patronage of the arts, King Louis XIV established an art academy in Rome called the Acadmie de France. This move was prompted by Charles Le Brun, who had previously been instrumental in founding France's Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture (Acadmie Royale de Peinture et de Sculpture) in Paris in 1648. In 1666 French statutes decreed that the newly established Grands Prix de Rome should preferably be awarded to prizewinning pupils from the Royal Academy. The original prizes were awarded to students of painting and sculpture. Prizes for architecture were awarded regularly after about 1720. Many of the greatest French artists and architects of the 18th century went to Rome as prizewinners, including the painters Antoine Coypel, Jean-Honor Fragonard, and Jacques-Louis David and the sculptors Franois Girardon, Clodion, and Jean-Antoine Houdon. The Acadmie de France was closed during the French Revolution, from 1792 to 1801, and then reopened in its present building, the magnificent Villa Medici. In the 19th century prizes for engravers and musicians were added; the most famous prizewinners of that century were the painter J.-A.-D. Ingres, the sculptors Pierre-Jean David d'Angers and Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux, the architect Tony Garnier, and the composers Hector Berlioz, Charles Gounod, Georges Bizet, and Claude Debussy. In the second half of the 20th century annual grands prix competitions were still held, the winner of the grand prix in each category being entitled to spend several years at the Acadmie de France in Rome. The prizes are now administered by the cole des Beaux-Arts. The competitions remain open only to French citizens. The Prix de Rome competitions and awards diminished in prestige and importance during the 20th century, however.