Cette thèse porte sur les artistes suédois et norvégiens en France de 1889 à 1908. Ces années ont traditionnellement été considérées comme une période de retour au pays et d’abandon de la France pour les artistes scandinaves qui se seraient tournés de nouveau vers Paris seulement en 1908 avec l’arrivée des élèves d’Henri Matisse. Une étude approfondie de leur présence aux Salons parisiens a été menée afin de constater que leur nombre ne baisse pas et que les départs des uns sont aussitôt comblés par l’arrivée d’autres artistes scandinaves. À travers l’examen de la taille et de l’activité de cette communauté d’artistes installés en France durant ces deux décennies, dites nationalistes, il s’avère que l’hypothèse du retour vers la Scandinavie dans les années 1890 est un mythe créé par une historiographie faussée. La plupart des artistes scandinaves expatriés en France de 1889 à 1908 menèrent des carrières couronnées de succès dans un environnement cosmopolite et international. Les raisons de la mauvaise interprétation de cette période de l’histoire de l’art scandinave ont été analysées à travers les ouvrages d’histoire de l’art anciens et actuels. D’autres investigations ont été entreprises, basées sur la correspondance de ces artistes principalement conservée à l’Académie Royale des Beaux-Arts de Suède et dans les archives d’Auguste Rodin, ainsi que sur l’étude de leur accueil critique en France. Elles démontrent que la colonie scandinave de Paris de ces années-là a été exclue des expositions organisées en France par leurs propres pays et que la carrière de ces artistes expatriés, ainsi que le rôle de la France, ont été minimisés dans l’histoire de l’art scandinave. / This dissertation is about the presence of Swedish and Norwegian artists in France during the years 1889 to 1908. Traditionally these years have been considered as a period when Scandinavian artists left France to return to their homelands and according to this traditional view, they only returned to Paris and French influence with the arrival of Henri Matisse’s students around 1908. A thorough study of their presence in the Parisian Salons has been conducted which determines that their numbers do not decrease and that the departure of certain Scandinavian artists was balanced by the arrival of others. By examining the size and the activity of this artistic community in France during these two so-called nationalistic decades, it appears in fact that the hypothesis about the return to Scandinavia in the 1890’s is a myth created by a distorted historiography. Most Scandinavian expatriate artists living in France between 1889 and 1908 led successful careers in a cosmopolitan and international environment. The reasons for the misinterpretation of this period in Scandinavian art history have been analysed using historical and current texts and art history handbooks. Further investigation based on the correspondence of these artists, kept chiefly by the Royal Swedish Academy of Fine Arts and in the archives of Auguste Rodin, as well as the study of their critical reception in France, have shown that the Parisian colony of Scandinavian artists has often been excluded from exhibitions organized in France by their home countries and that the career of these expatriate artists as well as the role of France during this period has been minimized in Scandinavian art history.

Post-war sculpture created by members of the Royal Academy of Arts was seemingly marginalised by Keynesian state patronage which privileged a new generation of avant-garde sculptors. This thesis considers whether selected Academicians (Siegfried Charoux, Frank Dobson, Maurice Lambert, Alfred Machin, John Skeaping and Charles Wheeler) variously engaged with pedagogy, community, exhibition practice and sculpture for the state, to access ascendant state patronage. Chapter One, The Post-war Expansion of State Patronage , investigates the existing and shifting parameters of patronage of the visual arts and specifically analyses how this was manifest through innovative temporary sculpture exhibitions. Chapter Two, The Royal Academy Sculpture School , examines the reasons why the Academicians maintained a conventional fine arts programme of study, in contrast to that of industrial design imposed by Government upon state art institutions for reasons of economic contribution. This chapter also analyses the role of the art-Master including the influence of émigré teachers, prospects for women sculpture students and the post-war scarcity of resources which inspired the use of new materials and techniques. Chapter Three, The Royal Academy as Community , traces the socialisation of London-based art societies whose memberships helped to identify sculptors for potential election to the Royal Academy; it then considers the gifting of elected Academicians Diploma Works. The empirical mapping of sponsorship for elected sculptors is investigated to determine how the organic profile of the Royal Academy s membership began to accommodate more modern sculptors and identifies a petition for change which may have influenced Munnings s speech (1949). Chapter Four, The Royal Academy Summer Exhibitions , explores the preparatory rituals of the Selection and Hanging Committees, processes for the selection of amateurs works, exhibit genres and critical reception. Moreover it contrasts the Summer Exhibitions with the Arts Council s Sculpture in the Home exhibition series to identify potential duplications. Chapter Five, Sculpture for the State , considers three diverse conduits facilitating the acquisition of sculpture for the state: The Chantrey Collection administered by the Royal Academy and exhibited at the Tate Gallery; the commissioning of Charles Wheeler s Earth and Water (1951 1953) for the new Ministry of Defence, London; and the selection of Siegfried Charoux s The Neighbours (1959) for London County Council s Patronage of the Arts Scheme . For these sculptures, complex expressions of Britishness are considered. In summary this thesis argues that unfettered by their allegiance to the Royal Academy of Arts its sculptors sought ways in which they might participate in the unprecedented opportunities that an expanded model of state patronage presented.