page_title: Société des Artistes Indépendants
section_title: Early exhibitions
hierarchical_section_title: Société des Artistes Indépendants / Early exhibitions
caption_attribution_description: English: HENRI EDMOND CROSS (1856 - 1910), LA PLAGE DE SAINT-CLAIR, signed Henri Edmond Cross and dated 96 (lower left), oil on canvas, 54.5 by 65.4cm. Painted in 1896.
context_page_description: The Société des Artistes Indépendants, Salon des Indépendants was formed in Paris on 29 July 1884. The association began with the organization of massive exhibitions in Paris, choosing the slogan "sans jury ni récompense". Albert Dubois-Pillet, Odilon Redon, Georges Seurat and Paul Signac were among its founders. For the following three decades their annual exhibitions set the trends in art of the early 20th century, along with the Salon d'Automne. This is where artworks were often first displayed and widely discussed. World War I brought a closure to the salon, though the Artistes Indépendants remained active. Since 1920, the headquarters is located in the vast basements of the Grand Palais.
context_section_description: The Salon des Indépendants arose through the need by artists to present their works to the general public independently, rather than through the official selective method of the "Salon" (created by Louis XIV). A small collective of innovative artists—Paul Cézanne, Paul Gauguin, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Camille Pissarro along with Albert Dubois-Pillet, Odilon Redon, Georges Seurat, Paul Signac—created the Salon des Indépendants. The right to present their works to the public with no restrictions was their only condition. Article no. 1 of the By-laws of the organization: "The purpose of Société des Artistes Indépendants—based on the principle of abolishing admission jury—is to allow the artists to present their works to public judgement with complete freedom".
  On 1 December 1884, Lucien Boué, President of the Paris City Council, opened the first Salon des Artistes Indépendants at the Palais Polychrome (near the Palais de l'Industrie). The Salon became the refuge for artworks deemed unacceptable by the traditional Salon. Among the works exhibited were Seurat's "La baignade à Asnières" Signac's "Le Pont d'Austerlitz", and works of Henri-Edmond Cross, Odilon Redon, Albert Dubois-Pillet, Louis Valtat, Armand Guillaumin, Charles Angrand, Paul Cézanne, Paul Gauguin, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, and Vincent van Gogh.
  The proceeds of the first show were earmarked for the victims of cholera. The second exhibition was held in 1886 in a temporary building in the Tuileries Garden with 200 paintings exhibited. By 1905 Henri Rousseau, Pierre Bonnard, Jean Metzinger and Henri Matisse had exhibited there. During the period between 1890 and 1914 known as La Belle Époque practically all of the artists associated with modernism and the avant-garde exhibited at the Indépendants. The works exhibited ranged in style from Realist to post-Impressionist, Nabis, Symbolist, Neo-impressionist/Divisionist, Fauve, Expressionist, Cubist and Abstract art.
  The submission payment was 10 francs for four works. In 1906 ten works could be submitted for 25 francs and from 1909 only two. In 1901 more than thousand paintings were shown. 2,395 works were exhibited in 1904, and 1905, 4,269 works by 669 artists. By 1908 six thousand works were displayed at the Indépendants. In 1910 the number of artists increased to 1,182, rising progressively to 2,175 by 1930. In 1926 the critic Louis Vauxcelles estimated that only 100 of the 3,726 artworks were of any value.
  In 1895 and 1897 the Salon des Indépendants was held at the Palais des Beaux-Arts et des Arts libéraux (Champ de Mars). Between 1901 and 1907, the exhibition was held in the Grandes Serres de la Ville de Paris (Cours-la-Reine, Paris), also called Grande Serre de l'Alma, built for the Exposition Universelle of 1900. From 1920 the exhibitions were held at the Grand Palais des Champs-Elysées in Paris.
  In 1902 the Indépendants featured a retrospective of works by Toulouse-Lautrec. Jean Metzinger sent three paintings to the Salon des Indépendants in 1903, and subsequently moved to Paris with the proceeds from their sale. He again exhibiting several paintings, this time along with Robert Delaunay, at the Indépendants of 1904, where Cross presented his Venice series. In 1905 the salon featured retrospectives of works by Seurat and Vincent van Gogh.
caption: Henri-Edmond Cross, 1896, La Plage de Saint-Clair, oil on canvas, 54.5 by 65.4 cm
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