Salon or Paris Salon or Salon d'Apollon

   [upper case S] The annual art exhibition of painting and sculpture by the French Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture, later known as the Académie des Beaux-Arts. Although from the seventeenth century informal exhibitions were held in the Salon d'Apollon, in the Louvre, not until the nineteenth century did the Salon assume its paramount importance. Exhibits were selected by a jury and acceptance generally secured an artist's sales and reputation, while further prestige attached to the medals awarded for painting, sculpture and printmaking. As the century progressed, the academic and increasingly conservative jury rejected many innovatory artists until in 1863 Napoleon III established a Salon des Refusés in response to the protest against the number of works rejected by the official Salon that year. By 1870 the Salon had become synonymous with conventional art and had declined in importance. Also see Salon des Indépendents, Salon d'Automne, secession, and skyed.