Salon d'Automne

Salon d'Automne. Annual exhibition founded in Paris in 1903 as a more progressive alternative to the official Salon and other current exhibiting venues, including the Salon des Indépendants; it was held in the autumn (October or November), so as not to clash with these other shows, which took place mainly in spring and summer. The founders were a group of painters and poets, among them Carrière (see ACADÉMIE), Renoir, Rouault, and Vuillard, led by the architect Frantz Jourdain (1847–1935), now best remembered for his Samaritaine department store in Paris, a masterpiece of Art Nouveau. The early Salons d'Automne played an important role in establishing the reputations of Cézanne and Gauguin. There was a small Gauguin exhibition in 1903 (the inaugural show) and a major retrospective in 1906; Cézanne was strongly represented in 1905 and was given a memorial exhibition in 1907 that made a powerful impact on many members of the avant-garde. However, the Salon d'Automne is famous above all for the sensational launch of Fauvism at the 1905 exhibition.

In 1913, Herwarth Walden, Berlin's leading promoter of avant-garde art, gave the name ‘First German Salon d'Automne’ (Erster Deutscher Herbstsalon) to the greatest of the exhibitions he organized at his Sturm Gallery.