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| Salon du Champ de Mars | |
|---|---|
| Name | Salon du Champ de Mars |
| Location | Paris, France |
| First | 1791 |
| Last | 1880s |
| Genre | Fine art exhibition |
Salon du Champ de Mars was a major Parisian art exhibition held on the Champ de Mars during the late 18th and 19th centuries that competed with the Paris Salon and intersected with institutions such as the Académie royale de peinture et de sculpture, the École des Beaux-Arts, and the Musée du Louvre. It served as a forum for artists associated with movements including Neoclassicism, Romanticism, and Realism, featuring works by figures connected to the French Revolution, the July Revolution, and the Paris Commune. The exhibition influenced juries, critics, collectors, and patrons linked to venues like the Théâtre Français, Palais-Royal, and the Exposition Universelle.
The origins trace to the revolutionary reorganization after the French Revolution, when artists previously patronized by the Ancien Régime sought alternatives to the Académie des Beaux-Arts and the Paris Salon. Early iterations were shaped by figures associated with the National Constituent Assembly, the Committee of Public Safety, and municipal authorities of Paris. During the Napoleonic era, links to the First French Empire and commissions from the Palace of Versailles affected attendance and submissions; subsequent restorations under the Bourbon Restoration and the July Monarchy shifted politics within selection committees. The 1848 French Revolution of 1848 and the establishment of the Second French Republic altered patronage networks, while the Second French Empire and the reign of Napoleon III saw increased state involvement alongside private salons hosted by families like the Rothschild family. Episodes connecting to the Paris Commune and the 1870s reorganization of municipal exhibitions redefined the Salon's role relative to the World's fairs.
Administratively the event was influenced by bodies such as the Municipal Council of Paris, the Ministry of the Interior, and art academies including the Académie des Beaux-Arts. The Champ de Mars site linked it to landmarks like the École Militaire, the École Polytechnique, and sightlines to the Eiffel Tower in later decades. Exhibition layout borrowed curatorial practices from the Musée du Luxembourg and the Louvre Museum, with hanging conventions comparable to those at the Royal Academy of Arts in London and the British Institution. Jurors often included directors from the École des Beaux-Arts, professors connected to the École des Arts Décoratifs, and critics writing for periodicals like Le Figaro, La Presse, and Le Moniteur Universel. Financial support mixed municipal grants, commissions from the Ministry of Fine Arts, and patronage by collectors such as members of the Comte de Nieuwerkerke circle.
Shows displayed paintings, sculptures, drawings, and prints by artists whose careers intersected with major canvases like those hung at the Paris Salon and the Salon des Refusés. Notable works presented included submissions that paralleled masterpieces housed in the Musée d'Orsay, the Musée du Louvre, and regional museums of Rouen, Lyon, and Bordeaux. Pieces by artists with connections to canvases such as the Liberty Leading the People echoing the July Revolution or history paintings reminiscent of the The Death of Marat were often debated by critics referencing the writings of Charles Baudelaire, Théophile Gautier, and Jules Champfleury. Sculptures exhibited bore kinship to commissions for public monuments like those in Place de la Concorde and the Panthéon.
Participants included a spectrum from establishment figures tied to the Académie royale and Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres to avant-garde artists connected to Eugène Delacroix, Gustave Courbet, and followers of Édouard Manet. Painters and sculptors with links to studios at the École des Beaux-Arts and ateliers of teachers such as Antoine-Jean Gros, François Gérard, and James Pradier appeared alongside landscape artists influenced by John Constable, J. M. W. Turner, and the Barbizon school including Théodore Rousseau and Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot. Printmakers and illustrators who worked for periodicals like Le Charivari and La Revue des Deux Mondes also showed works; collectors and dealers such as Paul Durand-Ruel and critics like Charles Blanc shaped reputations. International participants referenced networks reaching Rome, Florence, Vienna, and Berlin.
Critical reception appeared in publications including Le Figaro, Le Monde Illustré, and La Revue des Deux Mondes, where commentators compared the exhibition to the Paris Salon and the Salon des Refusés. Debates involved academic juries versus independent tendencies associated with Realism and Impressionism; polemics invoked personalities such as Émile Zola and poets like Stéphane Mallarmé. The Salon influenced municipal acquisition policies for institutions including the Musée du Louvre, the Musée du Luxembourg, and provincial museums, and affected commissions for public art in places like the Hôtel de Ville and the Gare du Nord.
The Salon's legacy is visible in institutional reforms at the Académie des Beaux-Arts, curatorial practices at the Musée d'Orsay, and the rise of alternative exhibitions such as the Salon des Indépendants and the Salon d'Automne. Its role in creating markets influenced dealers like Ambroise Vollard and collectors including Henri Matisse and Pablo Picasso who later transformed modern art in Montmartre and Montparnasse. The event's imprint survives in scholarly studies by historians researching archives of the Bibliothèque nationale de France, catalogues maintained by the Musée Carnavalet, and exhibition histories taught at institutions like the Sorbonne University and the Collège de France.
Category:Art exhibitions in Paris Category:19th-century art