Abstract:
Two men are looking at a painting in an exhibition with a magnifying glass. They claim that one can see that the color is nice. 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.
