TY  - JOUR
AU  - Galenson,David W.
AU  - Jensen,Robert
TI  - Careers and Canvases: The Rise of the Market for Modern Art in the Nineteenth Century
JF  - National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series
VL  - No. 9123
PY  - 2002
Y2  - August 2002
UR  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w9123
L1  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w9123.pdf
N1  - Author contact info:
David Galenson
Department of Economics
University of Chicago
1126 East 59th Street
Chicago, IL  60637
Tel: 773/702-8258
Fax: 773/702-8490
E-Mail: galenson@uchicago.edu

Robert T. Jensen
UCLA School of Public Affairs
3250 School of Public Affairs Building
Box 951656
Los Angeles, CA 90095-1656
Tel: 617/496-1623
Fax: 617/296-5747
E-Mail: Robert_Jensen@brown.edu
AB  - This paper reexamines the process by which a market for a new product   modern painting   emerged in Paris in the nineteenth century.  Contrary to the accepted account, in which the monopoly of the official Salon was replaced by a competitive market operated by private dealers, we find that the Salon was in fact initially replaced by a series of smaller group exhibitions organized by artists.  The Impressionists were thus leaders not only in creating modern art, but also in developing its markets. Our reinterpretation of this episode yields a new understanding of the interactions between artists and markets in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, and for the first time highlights specific ways in which artists' behavior was affected by the structure of art markets during the first half century of the modern era.
ER  -