- Ma femme....., comme nous n'aurions pas le temps de tout voir en un jour; regarde les tableaux qui sont du côté droit..., moi je regarderai ceux qui sont du côté gauche, et quand nous serons de retour à la maison, nous nous raconterons ce que nous aurons vu chacun de notre côté.....

Trustman, Benjamin A., Trustman, Julia M. · 1859

A couple have come to see an exhibition. The husband tells his wife that they don't have all day so she should concentrate on seeing the pictures on the right and he the left and when they get home they will tell each other about them. L'EXPOSITION DE 1859, a series of 9 irregularly numbered prints which appeared in the CHARIVARI between April and June 1859. This print can be considered to be the best of this series. Typically for this period as well as for the previous century, all paintings were "plastered" on the wall without regard to their respective themes. SALON. The SALON, the yearly art exhibitions in Paris, were actually art fairs which attracted approximately 1 million visitors from Paris and the provinces. Hundreds of painters and sculptors exhibited. The Salons were the ideal marketplace for the classical painters as well as the new, modern, avant-garde artists. Having little access to private art galleries, these exhibits were especially for the progressive school of greatest economic importance. The jury played an increasingly important role for the future of an artist. Once an artist was rejected from the Salon by a conservative jury, he had most likely no chance to succeed commercially. Very often, a parallel Salon was organized for those artists whose works were refused at the official exhibition . This was the case in 1855, when Courbet’s pictures were considered too revolutionary to be exhibited at the Salon. As a consequence, Courbet opened his own exhibition outside of the official Salon. Baudelaire made some remarks concerning the Salons: “During our time there are only two artists in Paris who are as able as Delacroix: the caricaturist Daumier and the second one is Ingres. All three of them have one thing in common: they express what they mean to say…..” The SALON was for most artists the only possibility to present their works to a greater public. The Salon of 1834 for example attracted some 30’000 visitors already on the opening day. During the entire period of two months, a total of one million spectators went to the show. On certain days the ticket price was reduced to 20 sous or was even free of charge, attracting a large number of visitors. During the World Fair, which lasted from May 15 to November 15, 1855 thousands of visitors from Paris and abroad as well as from the French provinces visited the Salons. The most important annual event for French painters was the great exhibition, the SALON. The artists worked up to the last moment to finish their paintings before the opening of the show. Since the SALON was open for all painters, the number of participants increased steadily: 1806 750 works of art 1831 3182 works of art 1848 5140 works of art 1870 5434 works of art