Le Salon Des Refusés: Le Peinture En 1863

In 1863, the official Salon jury rejected over half the artworks submitted to Paris's annual exhibition. The rejection rate was so extreme, and the outrage so fierce, that Emperor Napoleon III himself intervened, ordering an alternative exhibition of the refused works. This was unprecedented. The resulting Salon des Refusés became a sensation, drawing crowds who came to laugh, scoff, and eventually marvel at works that would later be recognized as revolutionary. Fernand Desnoyers, himself an artist and critic among the refused, provides the only contemporary account of this pivotal moment. He captures the anxiety and debate among painters deliberating whether to participate, the chaos of the exhibition's organization, and the fierce arguments over what constituted legitimate art. The book reveals how the juries, meant to uphold standards, had become dangerously out of touch with the artistic innovations emerging in mid-19th century Paris. This is essential reading for understanding how modern art was born in rebellion against the institutions that dismissed it.