Pro：We had been talking about the art world in the late century in Paris. Today I'd like to look at the woman who went to Paris at that time to become artists. Now from your reading what do you know about Paris about the art world of Paris during the late nineteen centuries?
Stu：People came from all over the world to study.
Stu：It had a lot of art schools and artists who taught painting. There were, our book mention is classes for women artists. And it was a good place to go to study art.
Pro：If you want to become an artist, Paris was not a good place to go; Paris is THE place to go. And women could find skills and instructors there. Before the late 19 century. If they women who want to become an artist have to take private lessons or learn from family members. They have more limited options than men did. But around 1870s, some artists in Paris began to offer classes for female students. These classes are for women only. And by the end of the 19 century, it became much more common for woman and man to study together in the same classes. So within few decades, things had changed significantly. Ok let back up again and talk about the time period from 1860 to the 1880s and talk more about what had happened in the woman art classes. In 1868, a private art academy open in Paris, and for decades it was the probably the most famous private art school in the world. It is founder Rudolph Julian was a canny business man. And quickly establish his school as a premiere destination for women artists. What he did was? After an initial trail period of mixed class, He changed the schools' policy. He completely separated the man and woman students.
Stu：Any reason why he did that?
Pro：Well. Like I said Julian was a brilliant business man, with progressive ideas. He thought another small private art school where all the students were women was very popular at that time. And that's probably why he adopted the women only classes. His classes were typically offer by an established artist and were held in the studio, the place where they painted. This was a big deal because finally women could study art in a formal setting. And there was another benefit to the group setting in these classes. The classes included weekly criticism. And the teacher would rank the art of all the students in the class from best to worst. How would you like if I did that in this class?
Stu：Hah…No way. But our test book said the competitive…competition was good for women. It helps them see where they need to improve.
Pro：Isn't that interesting? One woman artist, her name was Marry Bashkirtseff. Bashkirtseff once wrote how she felt about classmate's work. She thought her classmates' art was much better than her own and it gave her an incentive to do better. Overall the competition in the women's art classes gave women more confidence. Confidence they could also compete in the art world after their schooling. And even though Bashkirtseff could not study in the same classes as man, she was having an impact as an artist. Just look like the salon, what do you know about the salon?
Stu：It was a big exhibition, a big art show and they had in Pairs every year. They art had to be accepted by judges.
Stu：It was a big deal you can make a name for yourself.
Pro：You can have a painting or sculpture in the salon and go back to your home country saying you were been success in the Paris.
It was sort of, see of approval. It was a great encouragement for an artist career. By the last two decades of 19 century, one fifth of the paintings in the salon were by woman, much higher than in the past. In fact, Marry Bashkirtseff self had a painting in the salon in the 1881. Interestingly this masterpiece called In the Studio is a painting of interior of Julian's art school. It is not in your test book I will show you the painting next week, the painting depiction active crowd studio with woman drawing and painting life model. It was actually Bashkirtseff actually follow Julian savvy suggestion and painted her fellow students in a class at the school was the artist herself at far right. A great advertisement for the school when the painting eventually hung up at the salon, for a woman studio had never been painted before.
