The Salon (french: Salon), or rarely Paris Salon (French: ''Salon de Paris'' ), beginning in 1667 was the official art exhibition of the Académie des Beaux-Arts in Paris. Between 1748 and 1890 it was arguably the greatest annual or biennial art event in the Western world. At the 1761 Salon, thirty-three painters, nine sculptors, and eleven engravers contributed. Levey, Michael. (1993) ''Painting and sculpture in France 1700–1789''. New Haven:

Yale University Press Yale University Press is the university press of Yale University. It was founded in 1908 by George Parmly Day, and became an official department of Yale University in 1961, but it remains financially and operationally autonomous. , Yale Univers ...

, p. 3. From 1881 onward, it has been managed by the

Société des Artistes Français The Société des Artistes Français (, meaning "Society of French Artists") is the association of French painters and sculptors established in 1881. Its annual exhibition is called the "Salon des artistes français" (not to be confused with the ...

Origins

In 1667, the royally sanctioned French institution of art patronage, the Académie royale de peinture et de sculpture (a division of the Académie des beaux-arts), held its first semi-public art exhibit at the Salon Carré. The Salon's original focus was the display of the work of recent graduates of the École des Beaux-Arts, which was created by Cardinal Mazarin, chief minister of France, in 1648. Exhibition at the Salon de Paris was essential for any artist to achieve success in France for at least the next 200 years. Exhibition in the Salon marked a sign of royal favor. Salon_du_Louvre_1787

In 1725, the Salon was held in the Palace of the Louvre, when it became known as ''Salon'' or ''Salon de Paris''. In 1737, the exhibitions, held from 18 August 1737 to 5 September 1737 at the Grand Salon of the

Louvre The Louvre ( ), or the Louvre Museum ( ), is the world's most-visited museum, and an historic landmark in Paris, France. It is the home of some of the best-known works of art, including the ''Mona Lisa'' and the '' Venus de Milo''. A central ...

, became public. They were held, at first, annually, and then biennially, in odd-numbered years. They would start on the feast day of St. Louis (25 August) and run for some weeks. Once made regular and public, the Salon's status was "never seriously in doubt". In 1748 a jury of awarded artists was introduced. From this time forward, the influence of the Salon was undisputed.

Prominence (1748–1890)

The Salon exhibited paintings floor-to-ceiling and on every available inch of space. The jostling of artwork became the subject of many other paintings, including

Pietro Antonio Martini Pietro Antonio Martini (9 July 1738 – 2 April 1797) was an Italian painter and engraver, active in a late Baroque style. Biography He was born at Trecasali, within the duchy of Parma, a relative of the painter Biagio Martini. Pietro's father ...

's ''Salon of 1785''. Printed catalogues of the Salons are primary documents for art historians. Critical descriptions of the exhibitions published in the

gazette A gazette is an official journal, a newspaper of record, or simply a newspaper. In English and French speaking countries, newspaper publishers have applied the name ''Gazette'' since the 17th century; today, numerous weekly and daily newspaper ...

s mark the beginning of the modern occupation of art critic. The French salon, a product of the Enlightenment in the early 18th century, was a key institution in which women played a central role. Salons provided a place for women and men to congregate for intellectual discourse. The

French revolution The French Revolution ( ) was a period of radical political and societal change in France that began with the Estates General of 1789 and ended with the formation of the French Consulate in November 1799. Many of its ideas are conside ...

opened the exhibition to foreign artists. In the 19th century the idea of a public Salon extended to an annual government-sponsored juried exhibition of new painting and sculpture, held in large commercial halls, to which the ticket-bearing public was invited. The ''

vernissage A vernissage (from French, originally meaning " varnishing") is a preview of an art exhibition, which may be private, before the formal opening. If the vernissage is not open to the public, but only to invited guests, it is often called a ''priv ...

'' (varnishing) of opening night was a grand social occasion, and a crush that gave subject matter to newspaper caricaturists like

Honoré Daumier Honoré-Victorin Daumier (; February 26, 1808February 10, 1879) was a French painter, sculptor, and printmaker, whose many works offer commentary on the social and political life in France, from the Revolution of 1830 to the fall of the second N ...

Charles Baudelaire Charles Pierre Baudelaire (, ; ; 9 April 1821 – 31 August 1867) was a French poet who also produced notable work as an essayist and art critic. His poems exhibit mastery in the handling of rhyme and rhythm, contain an exoticism inherited fr ...

Denis Diderot Denis Diderot (; ; 5 October 171331 July 1784) was a French philosopher, art critic, and writer, best known for serving as co-founder, chief editor, and contributor to the '' Encyclopédie'' along with Jean le Rond d'Alembert. He was a promi ...

and others wrote reviews of the Salons. The

1848 revolution The Revolutions of 1848, known in some countries as the Springtime of the Peoples or the Springtime of Nations, were a series of political upheavals throughout Europe starting in 1848. It remains the most widespread revolutionary wave in Europe ...

liberalized the Salon. The amount of refused works was greatly reduced. In 1849

medal A medal or medallion is a small portable artistic object, a thin disc, normally of metal, carrying a design, usually on both sides. They typically have a commemorative purpose of some kind, and many are presented as awards. They may be int ...

s were introduced.

Early splinter groups

The increasingly conservative and academic juries were not receptive to the Impressionist painters, whose works were usually rejected, or poorly placed if accepted. The Salon opposed the Impressionists' shift away from traditional painting styles. In 1863 the Salon jury turned away an unusually high number of the submitted paintings. An uproar resulted, particularly from regular exhibitors who had been rejected. In order to prove that the Salons were democratic,

Napoleon III Napoleon III (Charles Louis Napoléon Bonaparte; 20 April 18089 January 1873) was the first President of France (as Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte) from 1848 to 1852 and the last monarch of France as Emperor of the French from 1852 to 1870. A neph ...

instituted the

Salon des Refusés The Salon des Refusés, French for "exhibition of rejects" (), is generally known as an exhibition of works rejected by the jury of the official Paris Salon, but the term is most famously used to refer to the Salon des Refusés of 1863. Today, b ...

, containing a selection of the works that the Salon had rejected that year. It opened on 17 May 1863, marking the birth of the

avant-garde The avant-garde (; In 'advance guard' or ' vanguard', literally 'fore-guard') is a person or work that is experimental, radical, or unorthodox with respect to art, culture, or society.John Picchione, The New Avant-garde in Italy: Theoretica ...

. The Impressionists held their own independent exhibitions in 1874, 1876, 1877, 1879, 1880, 1881, 1882 and 1886. In 1881 the government withdrew official sponsorship from the annual Salon, and a group of artists organized the

to take responsibility for the show.

Secessions

In December 1890, the leader of the ''Société des Artistes Français'', William-Adolphe Bouguereau, proposed that the Salon should be an exhibition of young, not-yet-awarded, artists. Ernest Meissonier,

Puvis de Chavannes Pierre Puvis de Chavannes (14 December 1824 – 24 October 1898) was a French painter known for his mural painting, who came to be known as "the painter for France". He became the co-founder and president of the Société Nationale des Bea ...

, Auguste Rodin and others rejected the proposal and broke way to create the Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts, with its own exhibition, immediately referred to in the press as the ''Salon du Champ de Mars'' or the ''Salon de la Société Nationale des Beaux–Arts''. Paul Bluysen, 'Le Salon du Champ de Mars – IV, La République francaise, 23 June 1890 Soon, it was also widely known as the ''Nationale''. In 1903, in response to what many artists at the time felt was a bureaucratic and conservative organization, a group of painters and sculptors, led by Pierre-Auguste Renoir and Auguste Rodin, organized the

Salon d'Automne The Salon d'Automne (; en, Autumn Salon), or Société du Salon d'automne, is an art exhibition held annually in Paris, France. Since 2011, it is held on the Champs-Élysées, between the Grand Palais and the Petit Palais, in mid-October. The ...

Gallery

File:Vue du Salon du Louvre en l'annee 1753 LACMA AC1998.27.1.jpg, Salon of 1753 File:Salon 1767.jpg, Salon of 1767 File:Salon de 1849, aux Tuileries.jpg, Salon of 1849, held at the

Tuileries Palace The Tuileries Palace (french: Palais des Tuileries, ) was a royal and imperial palace in Paris which stood on the right bank of the River Seine, directly in front of the Louvre. It was the usual Parisian residence of most French monarchs, f ...

File:This Year Venuses Again (Daumier).jpg,

, ''Bourgeoises'' scandalized by the Salon's Venuses, 1864 File:Edouard_Dantan_Un_Coin_du_Salon_en_1880.jpg, Edouard Dantan, ''Un Coin du Salon en 1880'' Salon des artistes français 1932.jpg, Salon of 1932, Grand Palais, Paris

References

Sources

* J. J. Marquet de Vasselot: ''Répertoire des catalogues du musée du Louvre'', 1793–1917 * Thomas Crow: ''Painters and Public Life in 18th Century Paris''.

1987 * Patricia Mainardi: ''The End of the Salon: Art and the State in the Early Third Republic'',

Cambridge University Press Cambridge University Press is the university press of the University of Cambridge. Granted letters patent by King Henry VIII in 1534, it is the oldest university press in the world. It is also the King's Printer. Cambridge University Pr ...

, 1993. * Fae Brauer, ''Rivals and Conspirators: The Paris Salons and the Modern Art Centre'', Newcastle upon Tyne, Cambridge Scholars, 2013. * Albert Boime, "The Salon des Refuses and the Evolution of Modern Art", ''Art Quarterly'' 32 (Winter 1969): 41 1-26 * Margo Bistis, "Bad Art: The Decline of Academic Art in the Caricatural Salon", ''International Journal of Comic Art'' 7, no.1 (Spring 2005); 126–148.

External links

Timeline of the Paris Salons
*Harriet Griffiths and Alister Mill
Database of Salon Artists, 1827-1850 (salonartists.org)Catalogue illustré du Salon, 1879 – 1913
Gallica, Bibliothèque nationale de France {{Authority control Art exhibitions in France Arts in Paris Painting in Paris Annual events in Paris 1725 establishments in France