The book of modern American scientists - sociologist H. S. White and art critic S. A. White - examines in detail the change in public institutions that form the aesthetic atmosphere and material conditions in the world of French art during the 19th century. The focus of the authors is the transition from the academic system to the market. A special place is given to the formation of impressionism in painting, which the authors associate with the fall of the old institutional system and the formation of a new one. The work of H. and S. White had a significant impact on the formation of the sociology of art as an independent branch of science.