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Art

Travelling academy

académie foraine; académie promeneuse

The joking names for Blaise’s mobile band of painters.

From the book

The Gods Are Athirst

Anatole France · Diotimos Editions · 2026

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Meaning

Paired phrases.

The joking names for Blaise’s mobile band of painters. Foraine means travelling or outside the usual fixed setting here, not that the group is a formally chartered foreign academy. The affectionate institutional parody accompanies the dealer’s serious effort to produce saleable sketches.

Places to read

  1. Chapter X, paragraph 59Frenchson académie foraine: His travelling academy. Blaise puts the group to work sketching the inn after dinner.
  2. Chapter X, paragraph 70Frenchl’académie promeneuse: The wandering academy. The company returns to Paris after its final day’s work.