""Art for art's sake" was an invention of the romantic era in France. They looked towards a mythical past in which the "natural" person could cultivate self-expression, free of the claims of social utility. This fantasized past had an anti-industrial character. Work was despised because the growing industrial revolution was separating it from inventiveness, originality, and individualism. The inventiveness and spontaneity that independent artists sought were opposed to industrial work, products (with which they associated academic art) and for many cities. Women and men held parasols and croquet mallets, not sickles and hoes, and dahlias were more attractive than cabbages."