Focusing on the case of young art school graduates whose aspirations to become visual artists have to confront the rights of entry to the artistic labour market, this article offers an analysis of the development of a lasting mismatch between professional mobility and subjective aspirations. The first part of the article aims to describe the processes that have given rise to these disillusions, at the crossroads between this thwarted professional mobility and a forced return to the space of origin, a declining middle-sized town. The second part looks at the readjustment and abandonment of artistic vocations within two “universes of consolation”, the voluntary sector and the private conjugal world.