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The École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts in Paris is the original of a series of Écoles des Beaux-Arts in French regional centers.

Since its founding in 1648, the Académie Royale de Peinture et de Sculpture had a school, France's elite institution of instruction in the arts.

Its program was structured around a series of anonymous competitions that culminated in the grand prix de l ' Académie Royale, more familiar as the Grand Prix de Rome, for its winner was awarded a bourse and a place at the French Academy in Rome.

During his stay in Rome, a pensionnaire was expected to send regular envois of his developing work back to Paris.

Contestants for the Prix were assigned a theme from the literature of Classical Antiquity ; their individual identities were kept secret to avoid any scandal of favoritism.