Auguste Jal,The Artist and the Philosopher: Critical Conversations on the Salon  of 1824

From Elizabeth Gilmore Holt, The Triumph of Art for the Public: The Emerging Role of Exhibitions and Critics (Gerden City New York: Anchor Books, 1979),pp.245-246.

This description of the classical ideal in art was written a quarter century before our period begins, but it represents an attitude towards culture that was still very much alive in the world of the French Academy at mid-century. Jal was a critic writing during the Bourbon monarchy (1815-1830) and the July Monarchy (1830-1848). Here is part of the review that he wrote of the official 1824 Salon.

LETTER  FROM  "THE  PHILOSOPHER" TO THE  AUTHOR

August 24, 1824
You  love the  arts  and  you  know  how I love them,  my friend. I  see them  as a  civilizing agent  and  a  means  of perfecting  the  social order, and  it  makes me  very angry to see their power ignored today. The  moral aim of painting is very dear to my heart. I do not  believe that  people are sufficiently  concerned with it and this makes me very unhappy. One virtuous act  well depicted  can make more impression on a people's spirit than having the story of that act repeated a hundred  times. I am sorry to see subjects without a moral, absurd traditions, frivolities of more than one sort  adopted  by some artists whose brushes would  be ennobled  by  being  consecrated to the great historical incidents of  their  country; at  least  they would serve  to arouse the  patriotism of  its  citizens, the filial heroism, the maternal devotion, the passion for work and order, the love of discovery and improvement,  industrious competition -- in a word, all the  generous impulses which make a society great but whose neglect diminishes it. An impressive development can already be noticed  in France; the glory of our arms and  the  enterprise  of our industry have placed  us in  the  front  rank among  nations; let the arts, following the direction  taken by literature, complete our  moral  education, and we will leave to posterity a moving inheritance that will combine the memory of those virtues and values which have made us the equal of the ancients and the tradition  of important  achievements and valuable inventions which have made us the most advanced nation in civilization.

You see, my friend, what I  expect from art. I  would hope that  the capable men who cultivate the arts would understand that and be willing to enter into a path along which there is so  much honor  to  be gained. May this year's Salon show us that they are on this track!

B.Perat,Varnishing Painting at the Salon (Paris1866)