was no place in the Salon for the everyday reality young painters were anxious to explore. Finally, there was another, unformulated requirement: the paintings had to appeal to the potential buyers for whom they were made.
The victorious revolution at the end of the 18th century had given rise to a class of nouveaux riches. 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 newly rich had questionable tastes that required some getting used to. It was precisely in the second half of the 19th 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.
Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Bathing on the Seine (La Grenouillère), 1868.
Oil on canvas, 59 × 80 cm. Pushkin Museum, Moscow.
Pierre-Auguste Renoir, La Grenouillère, 1869.
Oil on canvas, 66.5 × 81 cm. Nationalmuseum, Stockholm.
La Grenouillère, 1869. Oil on canvas, 74.6 × 99.7 cm.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.
Wharf of the Louvre, 1867. Oil on canvas, 96.7 × 124.5 cm.
Gemeentemuseum Den Haag, The Hague.
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 not unusual to find a Neo-classical composition next to a canvas painted in the spirit of Romanticism by the same artist. It was nevertheless a matter of honour for the Salon to retain its prestige and consequently, to maintain the spirit of Classicism upon which it had been based up until then.
Salon favourites were derisively called pompiers (firemen). The contemporary meaning of this word has been lost over time. It may have stemmed from the constant presence of real firemen in the rooms of the Salon, or it may have been that the shiny headgear of the antique warriors in Salon paintings made one think of firemen.
Or perhaps pompier was an echo of the French word for Pompeii (Pompéi), as the Pompeian lifestyle was frequently depicted in the Salon’s antique compositions. One story attributes the origin of the term to the famous phrase by the academician Gérôme, who said that it was easier to be an arsonist than a fireman. By that the honourable professor meant artists like himself fulfilled the difficult and noble duty of firemen, whereas those who one way or another attacked the foundations of the Salon and the classical ideal of art, naturally seemed like arsonists.
The four former pupils of Gleyre, along with Pissarro who had joined them, consciously took the side of the arsonists. Academic stagnation was already inspiring protest among artists.
Even the great Ingres, an Academy member and professor of painting for whom the defence of Classicism was a matter of honour, was saying that the Salon was perverting and suffocating the artist’s sense of grandeur and beauty. Ingres saw that exhibiting in the Salon awakened an interest in financial gain, the desire to achieve recognition at any cost, and that the Salon itself was changing into a sales room by selling paintings in a market inundated with items for sale, instead of a place where art dominated commerce. Moreover, too many artists remained outside of the exhibit, either because of professional mediocrity or because they failed to meet the criteria of Neo-classical painting.
In 1855, only 2,000 out of 8,000 submissions were accepted for the Salon that coincided with the World Exposition. Gustave Courbet’s best work was rejected, including his famous Burial at Ornans.
Entrance to the Port of Trouville, 1870.
Oil on canvas, 54 × 65.7 cm. Szépművészeti Múzeum, Budapest.
The Beach at Trouville, 1870. Oil on canvas, 53.5 × 65 cm.
Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, Hartford (Connecticut).
Jury members felt that his artistic leanings would have a fatal effect on French art. Indeed, Courbet was the first serious arsonist. He wrote in the catalogue to his individual exhibition:
I have studied the art of the ancients and moderns outside of the system and without taking part in it. I no more wanted to imitate the one than I wanted to copy the other…No! From a full awareness of tradition I simply wanted to draw the intelligent and independent feeling of my own individuality. To know how to, in order to be able to: such was my thinking. To be able to translate the values, ideas, and reality of my time, according to my own understanding; in short, to make a living art, that is my goal.
This statement by Courbet could have just as easily been made by the Impressionists, because, although using somewhat different means, all these artists aspired to the same goal. Each of the future Impressionists tried, with mixed results, to get into the Salon. In 1864, Pissarro and Renoir were lucky enough to be admitted, although Renoir’s accepted painting, Esmeralda, was considered a critical failure for the artist, who destroyed it as soon as the Salon closed. In 1865, paintings by Pissarro, Renoir, and Monet were accepted. In 1866, all the Impressionists – Monet, Bazille, Renoir, Sisley, and Pissarro – had their works accepted.
Pissarro was singled out in a review of the Salon by the young literary figure Émile Zola. Zola wrote that nobody would talk about Pissarro because he was unknown and that nobody liked his painting because he strove for Realism. It is possible that the future Impressionists sometimes got their paintings into the Salon simply because nobody knew who they were yet.
The jury of 1867 was harsh towards the young painters: Bazille was rejected and among the many paintings submitted by Monet, only one was selected. Zola, who typically focused on young artists in his reviews (as if he had failed to notice the academic paintings), wrote to a friend that the jury, annoyed by his ‘Salon’, had closed its doors to all those seeking new artistic paths. The Salon of 1868 nevertheless showed works by all five future Impressionists. Even so, all of them felt an increasing desire to exhibit outside of the Salon.
The idea of having a separate exhibition probably came from Courbet’s example. He was the first to actually do it. In 1865, he hastily set up a shelter on the Champs-Elysées near the World Exposition with a sign that read “Pavilion of Realism”, sparking strong interest among the public. “People pay money to go to the theatre and concerts,” said Courbet, “don’t my paintings provide entertainment? I have never sought to live off the favour of governments…I only appeal to the public”. The future Impressionists wanted to attract attention, too. Even when they found their way into the Salon, their modest little landscapes were only noticed by their close friends.
Hôtel des roches noires. Trouville, 1870.
Oil on canvas, 81 × 58.5 cm. Musée d’Orsay, Paris.
Garden at Sainte-Adresse, 1867. Oil on canvas, 98.1 × 129.9 cm.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.
