Аннотация:Aside from the free Salon of 1848, the single most dramatic artistic event of the short-lived Second Republic was the general and open competition for a symbol appropriate to the new regime.1 Historically, the contest marks a watershed in the development of French art not only for the inclusive range of its participants – composed of academicians, "juste milieu" representatives, realists and Barbizon artists – but also because it vividly reflected the pictorial problems of artists living in a period of transition. Yet, while references are often made to this contest by art historians, their accounts are fragmentary and generally confused.2 This is not entirely the authors' fault; the circumstances leading to the bizarre consummation of the contest presented a bewildering spectacle even to the participating artists themselves.3
