Abstract: The article is dedicated to research of sources and documents linked with recollection of Parisian painters of 1650–1800 by contemporaries and scholars. Since the origin of the Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture appeared regularly a sum of biographical essays devoted to French academic masters. The texts were created by historiographer of Academy until the middle of the 18th century. Later it were connoisseurs of fine art who continued to produce these writings. The authors were recruited from members of Academy as well as friends and relatives of an artist. After research of such sources and documents, the author strives to define a role of memory and posthumous glory for the most eminent artists and representatives of artistic milieu. The author takes in consideration an image of a Parisian painter displayed before his descendants. The article also treats an idea of personal glory connected with artists’ aim to make the Academy and its pictorial school flourish and rule throughout Europe. The research novelty is based on the lack of fundamental publications on the topic in Russian and Western historiography. The relevance of this study is caused by recent trends of social art history interested in everyday life and worldview of a real artist in the real world. Author’s careful work with authentic documents helped to trace a certain scheme used in such biographical writings. They contain biographical data, a tribute to personal qualities of the late artist and, finally, a scrupulous description of his works. The texts written by artist’s friends and relatives are usually more sentimental and have a touch of biographical novel. Virtually, both of these genres were intended not only to keep memory of artist’s creative heritage but also to represent his individuality. In doing so the biographers of any artist not only aimed to compose several individual vitae but also to create a panoramic view of French school of painting as the leader of artistic progress of the time.

Abstract: The subject of the study is the issue of interaction between the artist – J.O. Fragonard - and an influential official institution, such as the Paris Academy of Painting and Sculpture in the XVIII century. From the standpoint of historical sociology and psychology, the author discusses why, having achieved significant success, won the Rome Prize and received the title of appointed, the artist preferred to move away from the Academy and deliberately refused to build an academic career. Analyzing the reasons for such a decision, the author draws on historical sources that allow to obtain data on the private life of the master, his relations with teachers, academic authorities, customers of various categories. Reconstructing the artistic environment of Paris of the period under consideration, the author places his hero in a broad cultural context, without which it is impossible to understand Fragonard's place among his predecessors and contemporaries. Of course, the author constantly checks with scientific works, where the problems of interest to him are touched upon.     For the first time in Russian historiography, the author examines in detail the main facts of the biography of J.O. Fragonard in the context of his relations with the Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture. However, the principal novelty of the study lies in the attention to how a new type of personality is formed in the French artistic environment of the middle of the XVIII century, unlike the type prevailing at the end of the previous century. Artists from the time of the foundation of the Royal Academy sought first of all to separate themselves from the craft environment, to prove their belonging to the creative elite and their equality with the advanced Italian masters. Now, the defense of creative freedom, including from the Royal Academy, comes to the fore, the search for one's own path, which is not always compatible with an academic career. According to the author, the experience of creative freedom gained by such Rococo masters as J.-O. Fragonard turned out to be especially important for the further development of French art.