The very fact of admission to the Salon demonstrated extreme professionalism on the part of the painter and under these circumstances changing his manner of painting and his style was no great feat. It was precisely in the second half of the nineteenth century that the term “salon painter” became pejorative, implying a lack of principles and venality, the sort of eagerness to please that was indispensable for commercial success. The newly rich had questionable tastes that required some getting used to. Former boutique owners who had profited from the revolution built luxurious townhouses in Paris, bought jewels from the most expensive stores on the rue de la Paix, and bought no less expensive paintings from celebrated Salon painters. The victorious revolution at the end of the eighteenth century had given rise to a nouveaux riches class. Pierre Auguste Renoir, Riders in the Bois de Boulogne, 1873. ![]() Finally, there was another, unformulated requirement: the paintings had to appeal to the potential buyers for whom they were made. There was no place in the Salon for the everyday reality young painters were anxious to explore. An irreproachably smooth surface, created with miniscule brushwork almost indiscernible to the eye, was the standard finish required for admission to the competition. The jury sought a high degree of professionalism in composition, drawing, anatomy, linear perspective, and pictorial technique. Idealised nature, whether it concerned the female nude, portraiture, or landscape painting, was still a permanent condition of acceptance. Portraiture retained its customary affected look and landscapes had to be “composed,” in other words, conceived from the artist’s imagination. ![]() Traditional genres reigned and scenes taken from Greek mythology or the Bible were in accordance with the themes imposed on the Salon at its inception, only the individual scenes changed according to fashion. The Salon’s precepts were extremely rigid and remained essentially unchanged throughout its entire existence. It was not unusual to see jury members haggling amongst themselves for the right to have the work of their own students admitted. Furthermore, the teachers in charge of selecting the Salon’s paintings and sculptures would be choosing work made by the same artists they had as students. The Académie des Beaux-Arts (one of the five Academies of the Institut de France) picked the teachers for the jury from among its own members. ![]() A critical jury made up of teachers from the Ecole des beaux-arts selected the works for the exhibition. Obviously every painter wanted to exhibit in the Salon, because it was the only way to become known and consequently, to be able to sell paintings. By the time the future Impressionists appeared on the stage of art, the Salon boasted a two hundred year history. Beginning in 1747, the Salon was held biennially in different locations. Founded in the seventeenth century during the reign of Louis XIV by his prime minister Colbert, the exhibition was inaugurated in the Louvre’s Salon carré, whence its name. Up until then, there was only one venue for exhibiting contemporary art in France: the Salon. But organising such an event was not as easy as one might think. ![]() The time had come to announce this concept, as well as their independence from official art, and to show their canvases in the context of their own exhibition. Eleven years later, they were developing a new concept of painting as they worked en plein-air (out-of-doors). The future Impressionists believed they were making a clean break with academic painting when they left Gleyre’s studio.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |