AH01 - Assault on the Paris Salon

Breaking the Monopoly on French Art

The story of Modern Art begins with an insidious arrangement of absolute censorship which was designed by French Royalty in the 1700s. There were no independent art schools, galleries, or dealers. There was only the Academie des Beaux Arts in Paris, and the annual juried show they ran called the Paris Salon. Salon & Academie worked to ensure that the only artists who ever succeeded painted the style that they wanted, and the subjects that were essentially propaganda made to make the French King and the aristocracy look divine. One man decided to throw away his guaranteed income by deviating from the approved "Hierarchy of Genres". His name was Gustave Courbet, and he refused to paint romanticized noble subjects. He used the largest canvases, and instead painted commoners, laborers, sex workers, and the lower classes. And his act of open rebellion encouraged his fellow artists to begin using art to resist state control. That single act began 150 years of struggle between Art Innovators, and the Kingmakers of society. And that fight changed everything.

Courbet Paves the Way

Realism

Gustave Courbet mastered the representation style demanded by the Academie des Beaux Arts, but he refused to glorify the aristocracy. Famously, Courbet once said to critics, "Show me an angel, and I will paint one." He won a gold medal in one of his first Salon showings which granted him several years of being able to simply reserve space in the annual Salon and bypass the Jury that censored who and what got shown. Gustave used his prize to paint commoners and common life at large scale, breaking the illusion and forcing Paris society to view real life of real people instead of romanticized lives of nobles.

The Kingmaker Conformist

Romanticism, Academicism

After the Realists and the Impressionists dealt a major blow to the Kingmakers of the Acedemie and Paris Salon, the world of both art and public perception changed with the coming of the Industrial Revolution and Modernity. Two Masters of the time emerged and each took art in different but complementary directions. Paul Cézanne painted to reveal the basic geometric shapes in a style called Structuralism, and and Vincent Van Gogh painted to capture the energetic expression of emotions in the foundations of Expressionism. As their works diverged not just from the fading authority of the Academie, but also from each others' styles, two new aesthetics emerged that became the major foundations for many of the art movements that followed them.

Dissent From Within

Realism, Proto-Impressionism

Édouard Manet is a prime example of 'malicious compliance'. Where Courbet railed openly against the Académie and dismissed the Salon's approval, Manet spent his life seeking their approval from within the system, all the while eroding steadily at the spirit of the rules, while still obeying them to the letter. He was the Hipster of his day, and his lifestyle was immortalized by Emile Zola in a novel, given the name "Flaneur", the label for the playboys and tragically fashionable young men of society. Manet's rebellion was all the more pointed because it was much more subtle than Courbet's. But make no mistake, his criticism of the Salon and Paris Society was all the more scathing for the veneer of obedience it hid behind.

Plagued by Poverty, Dismissed by Society

Impressionism

Claude Monet struggled for years in abject poverty for most of his career. His familiarity with the impermanence of anything good in this world gave rise to the fascination with capturing a single moment in light. Because of the invention during his lifetime of the tin tube of paint, Monet and the Impressionists were some of the first painters in oil who could paint en plein aire, since artists before them had to grind pigments in batches to create all their own colors. He frequently would set up multiple easels next to each other so he could paint the light as it changed in short blocks of time on the same subject. Eventually he was able to support himself with his painting sales, but not until late in his life.

Painting Brilliance Dismissed by Men

Impressionism

Berthe Morisot grew up in a rigidly enforced set of gender roles. She esatablished herself as an Impressionist Master despite every disadvantage stacked against her. Both she and her sister Edma were trained as painters from a young age. She was a close friend of the trendy painting bad-boy of the day, Édouard Manet, and she ended up marrying his younger brother Eugene. Her works were an important part of of the Impressionist gallery shows, with her works hung for six of the seven Impressionist salons. Only Camille Pissarro showed in all seven. Her works were dismissed as 'decorative'. Her brushwork was masterful, but they called her style feminine, when the same style in the male Impressionists was called revolutionary. Berthe Morisot achieved her validation and widespread acclaim only after her death. But now, her paintings are considered some of the most beautiful Impressionist paintings made.

The Man Who Held the Team Together

Impressionism, Pointilism

Camille Pissarro was a complete outsider to French Society for havng been born in the West Indies, and also for being Jewish. In the time when the Dreyfuss Affair saw a major rise in European Anti-Semitism in the late 1800s, Pissarro was never accepted by Paris Society, let alone his masterpieces. The oldest and the most steady of all the personalities in the Impressionists, it was he who regularly mentored the younger fellows, made Morisot feel respected among equals, and who was the calm and steady fatherly figure to all of the young painters he met. He is the only Impressionist who showed works in all seven of the Impressionist independent shows. And he also was the only Impressionist to begin to experiment with the optical mixing of local paint color from the tubes introduced by Georges Seurat and Pointilism.

Nota Bene

The Art History Study Units were designed and researched as a brief survey to introduce each period in time. The Masters and Masterpieces collected here are not a complete view nor a complete roster of all Masters nor even all of their Works.

If you are inspired by the artists, their works, or the styles represented by the various Art Movements mentioned in these Study Units, you will find far more where that came from to continue your own personal research.

In the Art History Essays, presented in the blog articles, as well as included in the product description for each product under the "Design Story" tab, you will find academic citations. If you are interested in more scholarship about a single piece or an artist, use those bibliographies as a starting point to learn more.

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Breaking the Monopoly on French Art

Courbet Paves the Way

Realism

The Kingmaker Conformist

Romanticism, Academicism

Dissent From Within

Realism, Proto-Impressionism

Plagued by Poverty, Dismissed by Society

Impressionism

Painting Brilliance Dismissed by Men

Impressionism

The Man Who Held the Team Together

Impressionism, Pointilism

Nota Bene

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