DOI Heft:
No. 195 (June, 1909)
DOI Artikel:Frantz, Henri: The salon of the société nationale des beaux arts, Paris
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.20967#0066
The Salon of the Society Nationale, Paris
“memorial for the grave of one who loved his fellow men”
(Royal Academy. By special permission of the Artist)
BY W. REYNOLDS-STErHENS
The salon of the societe
NATIONALE DES BEAUX-
ARTS, PARIS.
There have been some very hard things said
about the Salons during these last few years, and
one cannot but recognise that certain of the re-
proaches levelled at the two Societies who annually
hold these large exhibitions are not without good
foundation. No one will, in fact, deny that
individually the works suffer by being grouped
together in such large numbers, and that such
paintings as those of Menard or Billotte—to take
two names at random from among the best-known
—gain immeasurably by being seen in Petit’s
Gallery or in some other such room of restricted
dimensions. Another complaint that one hears
very justly made regarding the Salons, and the
Nationale in particular, is that it contains so very
little previously unexhibited work. The Salon of
the Societe Nationale tends more and more to
become a closed exhibition, and the invited works,
that is to say all those by other artists than the
members and associates, are year by year diminish-
ing in number. It is therefore most unlikely to
find here new talent, thus giving good cause to
these detractors of the Salons.
On the other hand, were the Salons to be
suppressed, where should we have a chance of
seeing those large pictures which naturally cannot
figure in any exhibitions other than those of this
class ? I can hardly imagine, in truth, how one of
M. Auburtin’s panels or a work by M. Besnard
or M. Roll could be shown otherwise than at such
a show as this. Then again most French painters
belong to one or other of the smaller societies—
Internationale, Pastellists, Societe Nouvelle, Aqua-
rellistes, Peintres de Paris, etc.—but in all
44
“memorial for the grave of one who loved his fellow men”
(Royal Academy. By special permission of the Artist)
BY W. REYNOLDS-STErHENS
The salon of the societe
NATIONALE DES BEAUX-
ARTS, PARIS.
There have been some very hard things said
about the Salons during these last few years, and
one cannot but recognise that certain of the re-
proaches levelled at the two Societies who annually
hold these large exhibitions are not without good
foundation. No one will, in fact, deny that
individually the works suffer by being grouped
together in such large numbers, and that such
paintings as those of Menard or Billotte—to take
two names at random from among the best-known
—gain immeasurably by being seen in Petit’s
Gallery or in some other such room of restricted
dimensions. Another complaint that one hears
very justly made regarding the Salons, and the
Nationale in particular, is that it contains so very
little previously unexhibited work. The Salon of
the Societe Nationale tends more and more to
become a closed exhibition, and the invited works,
that is to say all those by other artists than the
members and associates, are year by year diminish-
ing in number. It is therefore most unlikely to
find here new talent, thus giving good cause to
these detractors of the Salons.
On the other hand, were the Salons to be
suppressed, where should we have a chance of
seeing those large pictures which naturally cannot
figure in any exhibitions other than those of this
class ? I can hardly imagine, in truth, how one of
M. Auburtin’s panels or a work by M. Besnard
or M. Roll could be shown otherwise than at such
a show as this. Then again most French painters
belong to one or other of the smaller societies—
Internationale, Pastellists, Societe Nouvelle, Aqua-
rellistes, Peintres de Paris, etc.—but in all
44