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SALON, EXHIBITION
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SALON.

The Salon, the yearly art exhibitions in Paris, were actually art fairs which attracted approximately 1 million visitors from Paris and the provinces. Hundreds of painters and sculptors exhibited. The Salons were the ideal marketplace for the classical painters as well as the new, modern, avant-garde artists. Having little access to private art galleries, these exhibits were especially for the progressive school of greatest economic importance. The jury played an increasingly important role for the future of an artist. Once an artist was rejected from the Salon by a conservative jury, he had most likely no chance to succeed commercially. Very often, a parallel Salon was organized for those artists whose works were refused at the official exhibition. This was the case in 1855, when Courbet’s pictures were considered too revolutionary to be exhibited at the Salon. As a consequence, Courbet opened his own exhibition outside of the official Salon. Baudelaire made some remarks concerning the Salons: “During our time there are only two artists in Paris who are as able as Delacroix: the caricaturist Daumier and the second one is Ingres. All three of them have one thing in common: they express what they mean to say…”

The Salon was for most artists the only possibility to present their works to a greater public. The Salon of 1834 for example attracted some 30’000 visitors already on the opening day. During the entire period of two months, a total of one million spectators went to the show. On certain days the ticket price was reduced to 20 sous or was even free of charge, attracting a large number of visitors. During the World Fair, which lasted from May 15 to November 15, 1855 thousands of visitors from Paris and abroad as well as from the French provinces visited the Salons.

The most important annual event for French painters was the great exhibition, the Salon. The artists worked up to the last moment to finish their paintings before the opening of the show. Since the Salon was open for all painters, the number of participants increased steadily:

1806 750 works of art
1831 3182 works of art
1848 5140 works of art
1870 5434 works of art

Ingres considered the Salon to be an overstocked bazaar where business was more important than art.


EXHIBITION.

The first World Exhibition in Paris took place from May 15 to November 15, 1855. It attracted thousands of visitors from the provinces and from abroad. Consecutive world exhibitions took place in Paris in 1867, 1878, 1889 and 1900. Daumier succeeded remarkably well to point at the problems these visitors were facing, such as: scarceness of accommodation, transport, and last but not least, their own naivety in connection with the "dangers" of the city.

The industrial revolution, the invention of the steam engine, lead to a strong economical development in France and especially in Paris. Baron Haussmann had launched a city restoration project of huge dimensions constructing wide boulevards leading from the center of town straight into the Parisian suburbs. The World Exhibition of 1855 attracted some five million visitors to Paris. Barbizon, a small town around Fontainebleau, became a center of attraction that summer for artists such as Daumier, Daubigny, Corot and Rousseau. The new train connections made it possible to travel from the capital to the sea at the breath-taking speed of some 20 miles per hour. Money was easily made by the bourgeoisie and readily spent also on objects of art. Genre painters copied from each other to meet the increasing demand (as Daumier showed in several of his prints). The Parisians had become part of the new bourgeois establishment.


PARIS AT THE PERIOD OF THE WORLD EXHIBITION.

The industrial revolution, the invention of the steam engine, all lead to a strong economical development in France and especially in Paris. Baron HAUSSMANN had launched a city restoration project of huge dimensions constructing wide boulevard leading from the center of town straight into the Parisian suburbs. The World Exhibit of 1855 attracted some five million visitors to Paris. Barbizon, a small town around Fontainebleau, became a center of attraction in summer for artists such as Daumier, Daubigny, Corot and Rousseau. The new train connections made it possible to travel from the capital to the sea at the breath-taking speed of some 20 miles per hour. Money was easily made by the bourgeoisie and readily spent also on objects of art. Genre painters copied from each other to meet the increasing demand (as Daumier showed in several of his prints). The Parisians had become part of the new bourgeois establishment.


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