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RESEARCH PRODUCT

Antonin Proust, member of parliament, minister of fine arts, protector and defender of arts

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Antonin Proust (1832-1905), political figure, friend of the artists, historian, critic and salonnier, played an important political and cultural part. The life of this liberal republican is a plea for the protection of arts in the service of the Republic. He connects economic structure with artistic institutions and constantly advocates the useful arts. His aim is economic: to train artists in the service of the industry. He creates art schools and encourages the introduction of design at school. As budget rapporteur, he supports the protection and the development of arts. The unification of the arts which he advocates results in the creation of the ministry of the Arts. Advocate of the heritage, he takes part in the foundations of the Musée de sculpture comparée, of the musée des Arts décoratifs, and founds the École du Louvre to train curators. Buying for the State the works of Millet, Courbet and Manet, he promotes rebellious artists, unruly to the Academy of fine arts, and emerges as a partisan of controversial works. Organizing exhibitions to the glory of Courbet or Manet, he advocates boldness, individuality, freedom and naturalisme. Real artistic, industrial and political propaganda, the World Fair of 1889 which he organizes concretizes his ambitions. He gathers fine arts and useful arts. The Art Nouveau takes root there to blow up in 1900. His successes did not allow Proust to enter the history, but his action bore fruits in the sustainability of the structures he defended the foundation of or in the boom of craft arts and of the art market.