salon

The official art exhibition organized in Paris by the French Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture and its successor, the Academy of Fine Arts. From 1725 the exhibition was held in the Louvre palace, and it became known simply as “the Salon”.  In 1737 the exhibition was opened to the public. Held first annually and then biennially, it became the most influential art event in the western world in the 18th and 19th centuries. The official Paris Salon later gave rise to the generic French term “salon” for any large mixed art exhibition. Pronunciation here. Web resource here.

François-Joseph Heim. King Charles X Distributing Prizes after the Salon of 1824. Oil on canvas. 1827. Musée du Louvre, Paris.