Changes in the Art Market During the Late Nineteenth Century
Today’s market for European art has its roots in the nineteenth century. In 1882 the passage of the Settled Land Act reformed inheritance law in Britain. As a consequence of industrialization and the availability in Europe of large quantities of cheap American wheat, the fortunes of British landowners were in decline. After bankruptcies began to mount, the inheritance laws were changed, making it possible for landowners to support their landholdings by selling their art treasures. Until 1882, estates were strictly settled, meaning that the head of the family did not actually own the land and estate goods, but rather was entrusted to preserve and protect the family property. This was meant to hinder large estates from being sold off in sections. The Settled Land Act made it possible to sell individual portions of an estate, such as works of art, in order to save the real estate (land and buildings). The art treasures of the British nobility began to flow into London auction houses, shoring up their dominant position in the art market.
Besides the passage of this law, the early 1880s marked the public acknowledgement of French Impressionism, a revolutionary art movement that emphasized subjects from everyday life and the accurate depiction of light and its changing qualities. Prior to this, Impressionist artists had been regarded as radical, immoral individuals who had declared war on beauty. Impressionist paintings were not accepted by the Salon de L’Academie des Beaux-Arts in Paris, which had been since 1830 the most important exhibition forum in the world and was historically the guardian of traditional standards of French painting. In reaction to the conservative tendencies of this institution, a group of Impressionist artists in Paris organized their own exhibition in 1874. Reviews of the exhibition were mixed. But in 1881, the Impressionist painter Edouard Manet was named a knight of the Legion of Honor; in 1882, Paul Cezanne was allowed to exhibit his work for the first time at the Salon.
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