TheSalon (French:Salon), or rarelyParis Salon (French:Salon de Paris[salɔ̃dəpaʁi]), beginning in 1667[1] was the officialart exhibition of theAcadémie des Beaux-Arts in Paris. Between 1748 and 1890 it was arguably the greatest annual or biennial art event in the Western world. At theSalon of 1761, thirty-three painters, nine sculptors, and eleven engravers contributed.[2] From 1881 onward, it was managed by theSociété des Artistes Français.
In 1667, the royally sanctioned French institution of art patronage, theAcadémie royale de peinture et de sculpture[1] (a division of theAcadémie des beaux-arts), held its first semi-public art exhibit at theSalon Carré. The Salon's original focus was the display of the work of recent graduates of theÉcole des Beaux-Arts, which was created byCardinal 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.
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In 1725, the Salon was held in thePalace of the Louvre, when it became known asSalon orSalon de Paris. In 1737, the exhibitions, held from 18 August 1737 to 5 September 1737 at the Grand Salon of theLouvre,[3] became public. They were held, at first, annually, and then biennially, in odd-numbered years. They would start on the feast day ofSt. Louis (25 August) and run for some weeks. Once made regular and public, the Salon's status was "never seriously in doubt".[4] In 1748 a jury of awarded artists was introduced. From this time forward, the influence of the Salon was undisputed.
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, includingPietro Antonio Martini'sSalon of 1785. Printed catalogues of the Salons are primary documents for art historians. Critical descriptions of the exhibitions published in thegazettes mark the beginning of the modern occupation ofart 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.
TheFrench Revolution opened the exhibition to foreign artists. TheSalon of 1824 was noted for its displays of British paintings byJohn Constable,Thomas Lawrence andRichard Parkes Bonington. by 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. Thevernissage (varnishing) of opening night was a grand social occasion, and a crush that gave subject matter to newspaper caricaturists likeHonoré Daumier.Charles Baudelaire,Denis Diderot and others wrote reviews of the Salons.
After theFrench Revolution of 1848 liberalized the Salon, far fewer works were refused.Medals were introduced in 1849.
The increasingly conservative andacademic juries were not receptive to theImpressionist painters,[5] 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.[6] An uproar resulted, particularly from regular exhibitors who had been rejected. In order to prove that the Salons were democratic,Napoleon III instituted theSalon 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 theavant-garde. TheImpressionists 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 theSociété des Artistes Français to take responsibility for the show.[1]
In December 1890, the leader of theSociété 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,Auguste Rodin and others rejected the proposal and broke way to create theSociété Nationale des Beaux-Arts, with its own exhibition, immediately referred to in the press as theSalon du Champ de Mars[7] or theSalon de la Société Nationale des Beaux–Arts.[8] Soon, it was also widely known as theNationale.
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 byPierre-Auguste Renoir andAuguste Rodin, organized theSalon d'Automne.
As the number of salons increased, American newspapers sometimes referred to the original salon as theSalon of the Champs Elysees.[9]
Other salons
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At the opening of the Salon of the Champs Elysees--the only salon conferring official honors--a painting by a new American artist was favorably noticed.
