Did you know that, for us, the word « salon » replaced the word « exhibition » starting 1725 because it was taking place in the « Grand Salon du Louvre » (nowadays called « Salon Carré «) and people were simply saying they were going to the « Salon »?

Now, please look at the engraving here below: it shows the opening day of the 1874 Official Salon in the Grand Salon du Louvre.

See how far up some paintings are hung? The man sitting on the left uses binoculars (and that wasn’t a joke). That was a big problem for some painters like Monet and Cézanne, because on the very few occasions they finally got one painting accepted at the Salon, it was hopelessly placed so high up that nobody could see it! And that's also the reason why, for their first « Impressionist » exhibition of the same year, the visitors were so shocked to see such « horrors » at eye level!

One last thing: notice the painter on the far right who is giving his painting a last minute touch-up. The ones at the top of ladders use big brushes because they are varnishing their paintings to make them shinier so that they can catch people’s attention better. That's what they did on the first day of the Salon, and that's why, up to this day, the official word for the opening of a paintings’ exhibition in France is « Vernissage », which means varnishing!