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The present article deals with the definitions of art included in instructions forwarded to travellers. Such texts date back to the sixteenth century and were not only applied widely in Europe but subsequently in North America too. During the eighteenth century they began to adopt an increasingly academic character. This study focuses on the Questionnaire de Sociologie et d’Ethnographie of 1883 which in France marked a transition point from physical anthropology to cultural anthropology. The Questionnaire de Sociologie et d’Ethnographie contains a separate section dedicated to the fine arts. The main objective is to analyse the definitions of art in the Questionnaire. The final part of the article deals with the answers.