The Display of Art: Exhibitions, Biennials, Salons: Paris Salons

Definitions and resources related to historical and contemporary exhibitions.

History of Salons

The official French art exhibition in Paris took its name from the Salon Carré of the Louvre, where from 1737 recent works by the members of the Académie Royale de Peinture et de Sculpture were shown. At first irregular, with no exhibition sometimes for several years, the Salon was held biennially from 1774 to 1792 . In the 18th century it provided a competitive forum for artists to display their work in the search for both public and private commissions. The exhibition was visited by a surprisingly wide cross-section of society, many of whom bought the livret or official catalogue. After the replacement of the Académie Royale by the École des Beaux-Arts in 1795 the Salon was thrown open to all artists, though it was some years before it was established as an annual event. In the mid-19th century the exhibition was moved from the Louvre to the Palais de l'Industrie but retained its traditional name. The process by which works were chosen and the composition of the jury that selected entries and awarded prizes were two of the most controversial issues in the 19th-century art world with the degree of open-mindedness and democracy reflecting the complexions of the various political regimes which succeeded one another in France. The dissatisfaction of progressive artists with a system that by and large favoured the more conservative and academic over the new and challenging culminated in the famous Salon des Refusés of 1863. This was arranged by the government of Napoleon III so that the public might judge for itself the quality of the art which had been rejected from the official Salon. In 1881 the École des Beaux-Arts gave up its control of the exhibition and a number of competing shows were established, quickly undermining what prestige the Salon still retained. (Excert from the Oxford Art Online

The Art Institute of Chicago has produced an excellent research guide about the Paris Salons and the available publications. Ignore the call numbers in the guide and instead look for the resources in the KU Catalog.  

Indexes of Artists Exhibiting in Salons

Sanchez, Pierre. Dictionnaire des Artistes Exposant dans les Salons des XVII et XVIIIEME Siecles a Paris et en Province, 1673-1800. Call Number: N6846 .S26 2004. 3v. Dijon: L'echelle de Jacob, 2004. Dictionary format of artists' names with v.1 A-Dul, v. 2 Dum-Me, v.3 Mi-Z. In French.

Sanchez, Pierre. Dictionnaire des Independants: Repertoire des Exposants et Liste des Oeuvres Presentees, 1920-1950. Call Number: N6850 .S257 2008. 3v. Dijon: L'Echelle de Jacob, 2008. Table of Contents: t.1. A-E; t.2. F-Mi; t.3. Mo-Z. In French.

Sanchez, Pierre. Dictionnaire du Salon d'Automne: 1903-1945: Repertoire des Exposants et Liste des Oeuvres Presentees. Call Number: N6850 .S26 2006. 3v. Dijon : Echelle de Jacob, 2006. Table of Contents: t. 1. A-E; t. 2. F-ME; t. 3. MF-Z. In French.

Sanchez, Pierre. Dictionnaire du Salon des Tuileries (1923-1962): Repertoire des Exposants et Liste des Oeuvres Presentees. Call Number: N6850 .S264 2007. 2v. Dijon: L'echelle de Jacob, c2007. In French.

Duncan, Alastair. The Paris Salons, 1895-1914. Call Number: NK7309.85 .A7D86 1994. 6v. Woodbridge, Suffolk: Antique Collectors' Club, 1994-. These volumes illustrate the work of the decorative artists who exhibited at the Paris Salons during the late 19th and early 20th centuries when the Art Nouveau style was in vogue. Table of Contents: v. 1. Jewellery, The designers, A-K; v. 2. Jewellery, The designers, L-Z; v. 3. Furniture; v. 4. Ceramics and glass; v. 5. Objets d'art & metalware; v. 6. Textiles & leather.

Catalogues of the Salons

Paris Salon Catalogues. A chronology and bibliography posted by the library at the National Gallery of Australia.

Sanchez, Pierre and Xavier Seydoux. Les Catalogues des Salons. Call Number: N5065 .A265 1999. Paris: L'Echelle de Jacob, 1999-. Facsimiles of the catalogs from the Salons de Beaux-Arts with bibliography and indexes. Table of Contents: v. 1. 1801-1819; v. 2. 1819 (supplement)-1834; v. 3. 1802 (supplement), 1835-1840; v. 4. 1841-1845; v. 5. 1846-1850; v. 6. 1852-1857; v. 7. 1859-1863; v. 8. 1864-1867; v. 9. 1868-1870; v. 10. 1872-1874; v. 11. 1875-1877; v. 12. 1878-1880; v. 13. 1881-1883; v. 14. 1884-1886; v.15. 1887-1889; v.16. 1890-92; v.17. 1893-95; v.18. 1896-98; v.19. 1899-1901; v.20. 1902-04; 21. 1905-1907; v.22. 1908-10; v.23. 1911-13.

Internet Archive (Search "getty salon") Access digitized versions of more than 220 of the Getty Research Library's collection of Salon books.

Société des Artistes Français. Catalogue Illustré du Salon. Call Number: N5066 .A6. KU owns many of the original catalogs dating from 1881-1912. 

Catalogues of the Paris Salon. 297 microfiche. Cambridge: Chadwyck-Healey; Teaneck, NJ: Somerset House, 1977-1980. Includes catalogs of the Salons held 1673-1881 at the Academie Royale de Peinture et de Sculpture and eleven other locations.

Diderot, Denis. Salons.  Call Number: N6846 .D46. 4v. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1957-. Includes official catalogue of each exhibition of the Academie Royale de Peinture et de Sculpture covering the years 1759-81, with comments by Diderot, and added biographical and critical notes about the artists.

Modern art in Paris: Two-Hundred Catalogues of the Major Exhibitions Reproduced in Facsimile in Forty-Seven Volumes. Selected & Org. by Theodore Reff. New York: Garland, 1981. KU owns many but not all of these facsimiles of catalogs from French exhibitions of 1855-1900. Check the Library Catalog for holdings.