Salon

Salon. France's official art exhibition, first held in 1667 and originally limited to members of the Académie Royale de Peinture et de Sculpture (see academy). The name derives from the fact that from 1737 the exhibitions were held in the Salon Carré in the Louvre (various other venues had previously been used). For many years their frequency was irregular (though with stretches when they were held annually or biennially); from 1831 they were mainly annual. The jury system of selection was introduced in 1748. As these were the only public exhibitions in Paris, conservative academic art gained a stranglehold on publicity; dissatisfaction with this situation led to the Salon des Refusés in 1863. In 1881 the École des Beaux-Arts relinquished control of the Salon and a group of artists organized the Société des Artistes Français to take responsibility for the show with a jury elected from each previous year's exhibitors. It still remained hostile to avant-garde art, and from this time a number of competing exhibitions were established, undermining what prestige the Salon still retained. The Salon des Indépendants, for example, appeared in 1884, and the Salon d'Automne in 1903.