Daumier - “The Sad Countenance of Sculpture
Placed in the Middle of Painting”

Beginning in Paris in the late 16th Century, the Salon functioned as the world’s preeminent annual exhibition of the visual arts. housands of people from all social classes came to the Salon, as at this time there were no other opportunities for the general public to experience the visual arts. The modern museum, a 19th Century innovation, has little in common with the Salon; where museums have been built specifically to showcase artworks, with each painting centered at 52″ above the floor, the Salon walls were covered from floor to ceiling with paintings.