After widespread protests over the 1863 Paris Salon jury’s rejections, Emperor Napoleon III directed that refused works be shown separately so the public could judge the complaints—creating the conditions for the Salon des Refusés at the Palais de l’Industrie.
The Salon des Refusés opened alongside the official Salon at the Palais de l’Industrie (Champs-Élysées), providing a high-profile alternative venue for rejected artists and a precedent for later independent exhibition strategies.
Édouard Manet showed Le Déjeuner sur l’herbe (then titled Le Bain) at the 1863 Salon des Refusés, where its modern subject treatment and frank nude helped make the counter-exhibition a flashpoint in debates over academic standards and modern painting.
A group of artists who sought to exhibit outside the official Salon formalized their plans by signing the acte de constitution for the Société anonyme des artistes peintres, sculpteurs, graveurs, etc., establishing a legal and financial framework for self-organized exhibitions.
The group’s first independent show opened in Nadar’s former studio at 35 boulevard des Capucines. It was staged deliberately outside the official Salon system and became the prototype for the later independent-salon approach to exhibiting avant-garde work.
A satirical review by Louis Leroy in Le Charivari (triggered by Monet’s Impression, Sunrise) helped fix “Impressionists” as a public label for the independent exhibitors—initially derisive, but soon widely adopted.
The second group exhibition opened in rooms at dealer Paul Durand-Ruel’s gallery (11 rue Le Peletier). The involvement of a major dealer signaled the growing importance of commercial networks in sustaining independent exhibitions beyond the Salon.
The third exhibition opened at 6 rue Le Peletier, organized with strong backing from Gustave Caillebotte. It consolidated the practice of mounting recurring, self-directed shows as an alternative to Salon juries and awards.
The fourth exhibition opened at 28 avenue de l’Opéra. Its official title emphasized an identity as a broader group of independent artists—showing how “independent salon” positioning could extend beyond a single style label.
The fifth exhibition opened at 10 rue des Pyramides. With notable absences (including Monet), it illustrated both the fragility of artist-run coalitions and the expanding set of options—dealers, group shows, and official submissions—for reaching audiences outside the Salon.
In May 1884, artists mounted an early “independents” salon (often described as organized by a Groupe des indépendants) at the Tuileries barracks site, demonstrating a push toward an open, recurring exhibition model outside official selection systems.
The Société des Artistes Indépendants was established in June 1884 to formalize an exhibition system explicitly rejecting Salon-style control, famously operating on the principle of no jury and no prizes and institutionalizing the independent-salon model.
The first official exhibition organized under the Société des Artistes Indépendants opened as a “Salon d’hiver” in December 1884 at the Pavillon de la Ville de Paris (Champs-Élysées), cementing a durable institutional alternative to the state-sanctioned Salon.
Salon des Refusés to the Independent Salon Movement (1863–1880)
