Artist and two bishops the French crowd (6)
I believe the answer is:
rabble
'crowd' is the definition.
(I know that rabble is a type of crowd)
'artist and two bishops the french' is the wordplay.
'two bishops' means two replacements for 'bishop'.
'artist' becomes 'RA' (Royal Academician, member of Royal Academy of Arts).
'and' says to put letters next to each other.
'bishop' becomes 'B' (chess abbreviation).
'bishop' becomes 'B' (chess abbreviation).
'the french' becomes 'le' ('the' in French).
'ra'+'b'+'b'+'le'='RABBLE'
(Other definitions for rabble that I've seen before include "Unruly mob" , "A disorderly crowd of unruly people" , "Person manipulating mob's passion" , "Disorderly crowd or mob" , "Disorderly, loud crowd" .)