The Salon (french: Salon), or rarely Paris Salon (French: ''Salon de Paris'' ), beginning in 1667 was the official

art exhibition An art exhibition is traditionally the space in which art objects (in the most general sense) meet an audience. The exhibit is universally understood to be for some temporary period unless, as is rarely true, it is stated to be a "permanent exhi ...

of the

Académie des Beaux-Arts An academy (Attic Greek: Ἀκαδήμεια; Koine Greek Ἀκαδημία) is an institution of secondary or tertiary higher learning (and generally also research or honorary membership). The name traces back to Plato's school of philosophy, ...

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 Universi ...

, p. 3. From 1881 onward, it has been managed by the Société des Artistes Français.

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 An academy (Attic Greek: Ἀκαδήμεια; Koine Greek Ἀκαδημία) is an institution of secondary or tertiary higher learning (and generally also research or honorary membership). The name traces back to Plato's school of philosophy, ...

), 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 École des Beaux-Arts (; ) refers to a number of influential art schools in France. The term is associated with the Beaux-Arts style in architecture and city planning that thrived in France and other countries during the late nineteenth centur ...

, which was created by

Cardinal Mazarin Cardinal Jules Mazarin (, also , , ; 14 July 1602 – 9 March 1661), born Giulio Raimondo Mazzarino () or Mazarini, was an Italian cardinal, diplomat and politician who served as the chief minister to the Kings of France Louis XIII and Louis X ...

, 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 l ...

, 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 St. Louis () is the second-largest city in Missouri, United States. It sits near the confluence of the Mississippi and the Missouri Rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a population of 301,578, while the bi-state metropolitan area, which e ...

(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'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 coup of 18 Brumaire, November 1799. Many of its ...

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

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 ...

, Denis Diderot and others wrote reviews of the Salons. The 1848 revolution liberalized the Salon. The amount of refused works was greatly reduced. In 1849 medals were introduced.

Early splinter groups

The increasingly conservative and

academic An academy (Attic Greek: Ἀκαδήμεια; Koine Greek Ἀκαδημία) is an institution of secondary or tertiary higher learning (and generally also research or honorary membership). The name traces back to Plato's school of philosophy, ...

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 nephew ...

instituted the Salon des Refusés, 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

Impressionists Impressionism was a 19th-century art movement characterized by relatively small, thin, yet visible brush strokes, open Composition (visual arts), composition, emphasis on accurate depiction of light in its changing qualities (often accentuating ...

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 Société des Artistes Français to take responsibility for the show.

Secessions

In December 1890, the leader of the ''Société des Artistes Français'',

William-Adolphe Bouguereau William-Adolphe Bouguereau (; 30 November 1825 – 19 August 1905) was a French academic painter. In his realistic genre paintings, he used mythological themes, making modern interpretations of classical subjects, with an emphasis on the female ...

, proposed that the Salon should be an exhibition of young, not-yet-awarded, artists. Ernest Meissonier, Puvis de Chavannes, Auguste Rodin and others rejected the proposal and broke way to create the

Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts (SNBA; ; en, National Society of Fine Arts) was the term under which two groups of French artists united, the first for some exhibitions in the early 1860s, the second since 1890 for annual exhibitions. 1862 Es ...

, 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.

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

, 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