Prix de Rome
From Conservapedia
The Grand Prix de Rome, an annual prize created in 1663, was a scholarship for arts students (initially for promising painters and sculptors). Artists had to prove their talents by completing an elimination contest. Artists awarded went to study at the "Académie de France" in Rome.
Some painters winners of this prize were: Pierre Monier (1663), Hyacinthe Rigaud, Jean-Antoine Watteau, François Boucher, Jean-Honoré Fragonard, Jacques-Louis David, Jean Ingres, André Giroux and William-Adolphe Bouguereau.