Exposition Triennale (1883)

Overview

The Exposition nationale des beaux-arts of 1883, called the «Exposition triennale» or «Salon triennal», was a state exhibition of living artists held in the autumn of 1883 at the Palais des Champs-Élysées (the Palais de l'Industrie) in Paris. It was meant to be held every three years, alongside the annual Salon, which the artists' own Société des artistes français had run since 1881. Its official catalogue is dated 15 September 1883 (BnF catalogue record, «Catalogue officiel des ouvrages de peinture, sculpture … des artistes vivants exposés au Palais des Champs-Élysées, le 15 septembre 1883»). A French museum record gives the run as 15 September to 31 October 1883 (pop.culture.gouv.fr, Joconde notice 06570004209). Marie still visited it on 22 November (102.0308), so it may have been extended; this is not checked.

Relevance to Marie

Julian expected her to send a picture. She calls it «un Salon expurgé», where «on n'y admet que peu de tableaux» (101.0109, 15 August 1883). She hesitated (101.0113, 101.0133) and then missed the deadline. She had thought it was 20 August, but it was the 16th (101.0140). Letters to Cabanel and Lefèvre came too late, because the jury had finished (101.0159). The disappointment runs through the following weeks (101.0155, 101.0233), and she turns her hopes to the Salon of May 1884. On 11 September she tries not to suffer too much «de n'avoir pas exposé au Salon triennal qui s'ouvre vendredi» (101.0330). She attends the vernissage on Friday 14 September (101.0348, «revenons à l'Exposition»), and on the 15th she goes back to see Bastien-Lepage's portraits, «le beau du beau» (101.0361). She goes there again with Paul on 20 September (101.0406), on 24 September (101.0430), on 1 October after Turgenev's visit (101.0473) and on 15 October (101.0619). On 22 November she finds it deserted: «Il n'est pas possible de voir une Exposition plus abandonnée» (102.0308, 102.0309).

References in Diary

In these weeks Marie writes «le Salon» and «l'Exposition» for this exhibition. The annual Salon of May-June is a different event.

Sources