The 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 occasionally true, it is stated to be a "permanen ...

of the in Paris. Between 1748 and 1890 it was arguably the greatest annual or biennial art event in the Western world. At the Salon of 1761, 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 Clarence Day, grandsons of Benjamin Day, and became a department of Yale University in 1961, but it remains financially and ope ...

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

Origins

In 1667, the royally sanctioned French institution of art patronage, the (a division of the

Académie des beaux-arts The (; ) is a French learned society based in Paris. It is one of the five academies of the . The current president of the academy (2021) is Alain-Charles Perrot, a French architect. Background The academy was created in 1816 in Paris as a me ...

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

, which was created by

Cardinal Mazarin Jules Mazarin (born Giulio Raimondo Mazzarino or Mazarini; 14 July 1602 – 9 March 1661), from 1641 known as Cardinal Mazarin, was an Italian Catholic prelate, diplomat and politician who served as the chief minister to the Kings of France Lou ...

, 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. 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 a national art museum in Paris, France, and one of the most famous museums in the world. It is located on the Rive Droite, Right Bank of the Seine in the city's 1st arrondissement of Paris, 1st arron ...

, 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'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 newspapers ...

s mark the beginning of the modern occupation of

art critic An art critic is a person who is specialized in analyzing, interpreting, and evaluating art. Their written critiques or reviews contribute to art criticism and they are published in newspapers, magazines, books, exhibition brochures, and catalogue ...

. 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 opened the exhibition to foreign artists. The

Salon of 1824 The Salon of 1824 was an art exhibition held at the Louvre in Paris between 25 August 1824 and 15 January 1825. It took place during the Second Bourbon Restoration, Restoration Era that followed the downfall of Napoleon's First French Empire, Fre ...

was noted for its displays of British paintings by

John Constable John Constable (; 11 June 1776 – 31 March 1837) was an English landscape painter in the Romanticism, Romantic tradition. Born in Suffolk, he is known principally for revolutionising the genre of landscape painting with his pictures of Dedha ...

Thomas Lawrence Sir Thomas Lawrence (13 April 1769 – 7 January 1830) was an English people, English portrait painter and the fourth president of the Royal Academy. A child prodigy, he was born in Bristol and began drawing in Devizes, where his father was a ...

and Richard Parkes Bonington. 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 Honoré-Victorin Daumier (; February 26, 1808 – February 10 or 11, 1879) was a French painter, sculptor, and printmaker, whose many works offer commentary on the social and political life in France, from the July Revolution, Revolution of 1830 ...

Charles Baudelaire Charles Pierre Baudelaire (, ; ; 9 April 1821 – 31 August 1867) was a French poet, essayist, translator and art critic. His poems are described as exhibiting mastery of rhythm and rhyme, containing an exoticism inherited from the Romantics ...

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 along with Jean le Rond d'Alembert. He was a prominent figure during th ...

and others wrote reviews of the Salons. After the

French Revolution of 1848 The French Revolution of 1848 (), also known as the February Revolution (), was a period of civil unrest in France, in February 1848, that led to the collapse of the July Monarchy and the foundation of the French Second Republic. It sparked t ...

liberalized the Salon, far fewer works were refused.

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 in ...

s were introduced in 1849.

Early splinter groups

The increasingly conservative and

academic An academy (Attic Greek: Ἀκαδήμεια; Koine Greek Ἀκαδημία) is an institution of tertiary education. The name traces back to Plato's school of philosophy, founded approximately 386 BC at Akademia, a sanctuary of Athena, the go ...

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 President of France from 1848 to 1852 and then Emperor of the French from 1852 until his deposition in 1870. He was the first president, second emperor, and last ...

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, ...

, 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 In the arts and literature, the term ''avant-garde'' ( meaning or ) identifies an experimental genre or work of art, and the artist who created it, which usually is aesthetically innovative, whilst initially being ideologically unacceptable ...

. 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 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 art, academic painter. In his realistic genre paintings, he used mythological themes, making modern interpretations of Classicism, classical subjects, with a ...

, proposed that the Salon should be an exhibition of young, not-yet-awarded, artists. Ernest Meissonier, Puvis de Chavannes,

Auguste Rodin François Auguste René Rodin (; ; 12 November 184017 November 1917) was a French sculptor generally considered the founder of modern sculpture. He was schooled traditionally and took a craftsman-like approach to his work. Rodin possessed a u ...

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''. 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 Pierre-Auguste Renoir (; ; 25 February 1841 – 3 December 1919) was a French people, French artist who was a leading painter in the development of the Impressionism, Impressionist style. As a celebrator of beauty and especially femininity, fe ...

and

, organized the . As the number of salons increased, American newspapers sometimes referred to the original salon as the ''Salon of the Champs Elysees''.

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_du_Louvre_1787.jpg, etching by Pietro Antonio Martini File:Salon de 1849, aux Tuileries.jpg, Salon of 1849, held at the

Tuileries Palace The Tuileries Palace (, ) was a palace in Paris which stood on the right bank of the Seine, directly in the west-front of the Louvre Palace. It was the Parisian residence of most French monarchs, from Henri IV to Napoleon III, until it was b ...

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 was the university press of the University of Cambridge. Granted a letters patent by King Henry VIII in 1534, it was the oldest university press in the world. Cambridge University Press merged with Cambridge Assessme ...

, 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 Salon de peinture et de sculpture