We have said that artists at that moment no longer accepted the rules of the "art authority". But, who was the "art authority"? Who decided if a work merited to be considered a real work of art?

Since the 17th century in France and the 18th century in England, Academies imposed the rules of painting and sculpture such as genres, themes, composition and all that had to do with the style (colour, visibility of brushwork, the way of finishing off, etc.). Their standards were the ancient classical art and the European tradition.

• hierarchy of genres: history (mythology and religion also), portraits, genre paintings, landscapes, still life.
• high moral content
• representational art but idealized
• colour should be naturalistic
• primacy of drawing over color
• polished finish

As Paris became the most important artistic centre, the French Académie des Beaux-Arts (Academy of Fine Arts) was the benchmark that was imitated in other academies and art schools across Europe.

Artists needed their works to be shown in order to find purchasers so they had to be accepted by the jury of academicians to exhibit in the only permitted public art show: the Salon, the most important annual official art exhibition  in the world.