A young Italian beauty 1871

Eugen von Blaas painted this image of a young woman, titled ‘A young Italian beauty’, during his career as an Academic painter. Blaas was one of many artists at the time who capitalized on the fashion for idealized images of Italian peasant life. Here, the woman’s youth and beauty are emphasized by her downcast gaze and her ‘traditional’ dress. Think about how Blaas frames her, and how that might speak to the art institutions of the time. Is he challenging the traditions of art? Probably not. Academic painting was entrenched in a system of patronage and the Salon system. Artists who found success in this world, like Blaas, were those who upheld its traditions, not challenged them. As historians, we need to look into who commissioned and bought these paintings, and how they were displayed. What do these contexts tell us about the exchange of cultural capital? The answers can reveal the complex relationship between art, commerce, and social class in nineteenth-century Europe.