Jour d'ouverture au Salon

Painted circa 1895, the present work depicts the opening day of the Paris Salon, one of the most important artistic events on the Parisian social calendar every year. Though at the time they had become a battleground between the more conservative Academy and the Avante Garde, the Salons still provided an opportunity for a diverse group of Parisians to view and form opinions about works of art, and were always well-attended as well as discussed in the international press for weeks on end following the opening. The Salon was then held at the Palais de l'Industrie, which had been built in 1855 for the World’s Fair, though the building was torn down in 1897 to make way for the Grand Palais and the Petit Palais, which were built for the 1900 fair. In addition to the top hatted men in morning dress and elegant ladies accompanying them, Béraud also includes more bohemian figures within the crowd to emphasize the variety of attendees, such as the less-elegantly attired older couple below the coachman at center, and the woman in more Italianate dress, possibly an artist’s model, at right. Béraud often painted the elegant throngs depicted in his paintings from a specially equipped hansom cab, and here a few of his subjects seem too have caught sight of the artist at work, including the man and woman at furthest right, and the older bearded man at center, the bright red pin in his lapel possibly signifying the Légion d'honneur.