thumb|upright=1.35|[[Henri Matisse, 1904, Luxe, Calme et Volupté, oil on canvas, , Musée d'Orsay, Paris. Exhibited at the Salon des Indépendants, 1905]]
The Société des Artistes Indépendants (, Society of Independent Artists) or 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" ("without jury nor reward"). 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 has been located in the vast basements of the Grand Palais (next door to the Société des Artistes Français, the Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts, the Société du Salon d'Automne, and others).
History
thumb|right|[[Paul Signac, 1890, Opus 217. Against the Enamel of a Background Rhythmic with Beats and Angles, Tones, and Tints, Portrait of M. Félix Fénéon in 1890, oil on canvas, 73.5 x 92.5 cm, Museum of Modern Art, New York City]]
The Salon des Indépendants (Salon des Artistes Indépendants) is an annual independent art exhibition aimed at a large audience that takes place in Paris. It was established in response to the rigid traditionalism of the official government-sponsored Salon. Since the first exhibition of 1884, at the Pavilion de la ville de Paris (Champs-Élysées), the organizing Société des Artistes Indépendants has vowed to bring together the works of artists claiming a certain independence in their art. The event is characterized by the absence of both awards and a selection jury. There are however placement or hanging committees. In contrast to the Salon d'Automne, which takes place in Paris during autumn months, the Indépendants is held during the springtime, inspiring artistic production during winter months, as artists prepare for the show. Several important dates have marked the history of the salon.
During the Second Empire, artists not backed by the official Académie de peinture et de sculpture in charge of the exhibits at the annual Salon or without support supplied by actual political constellations had little chance to advance. From year to year the number of artists working in Paris, the number of artists submitting works to the official Salon and the number of works refused by the jury increased, but neither the Second Empire nor the Third Republic found an answer to this situation.
For years, the artists had counted on official support. In 1884, finally, the artists began to organise themselves, and a "Group of independent artists" was authorised by the Ministry of Fine Arts to arrange an exhibition, while the City of Paris agreed to supply rooms for the presentation. So, from May 15 through July 15, the first "free" exhibition of contemporary art showed more than 5000 works by more than 400 artists.
Although sustained by Mesureur, deputy chairman of the Council of Paris and Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of France, by Frédéric Hattat, chairman of the Fine Art commission in the same council, and by Albert Dubois-Pillet, commanding the Republican Guard, member of the Grand Orient de France, the beginnings of the company, considered a nest of revolutionaries, were difficult.
Establishment
June 11, 1884, Maître Coursault, notary at Montmorency, Val-d'Oise, officially confirmed the establishment of the Société
Article 1 of the organization's statutes reads,
:...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.
Groupe vs. Société
Members of the Groupe challenged this foundation and succeeded in arranging an exhibition "for the victims of the recent cholera epidemic", inaugurated December 1, 1884, by Lucien Boué, President of the Paris City Council. Financially, however, the result was a catastrophe. Nevertheless, in spring 1885, the "Groupe" organised its next exhibition, this time with some success.
Early exhibitions
thumb|[[Georges Seurat 1884, retouched 1887, Une baignade à Asnières (Bathers in Asnières), oil on canvas, 201 x 300 cm, National Gallery, London]]
thumb|[[Henri-Edmond Cross, 1896, La Plage de Saint-Clair, oil on canvas, 54.5 by 65.4 cm]]
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".
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, including the first showing by Henri Rousseau. By 1905 Pierre Bonnard, Jean Metzinger and Henri Matisse had exhibited there. Many avant-garde artists, including those associated with the Société des Artistes Indépendants shifted towards commercial venues in the 1890s.
Due to space constraints stemming from preparations for the 1900 Exposition Universelle, the 1899 exhibition had only 187 artists, down from more than 1000 in 1897. In 1900, the Indépendants reached its lowpoint, with only 55 exhibitors and few serious or substantial critical reviews.
1901 Turning Point
In 1901, however, the society rebounded with more than 1000 paintings exhibited, and critics paying it serious attention again. Reviews of that years show were decidedly positive, even calling it "one of the most brilliant exhibitions" in the group's 17-year history. Fontainas, who had cried "Why M. Signac?" in 1897, and in 1899 declared the society "almost dead" did an abrupt about-face in 1901, highly praising the Salon. Art critic Roger Marx highly praised that year's exhibition and importantly, he continued to link its success to the ideals of freedom on which the society had been founded. "Overall, the exhibition of the Independents is more and better than the protesting Salon des Refusés; it gives the example of an open society where the rights of all are equal, where everyone is answerable only to himself and remains individually responsible. The artist admits and shows himself as he is, openly without pretense; the viewer, meanwhile, receives no watchword from the jury, follows the inclination of his preferences and decides, in his own way, from beginning to end. Fortunate training for the will, is it not true, that which accustoms man to use his independence to act, to think by himself and for himself, consulting no-one, in the blissfulness of free will!"
In the following years the exhibition continued to grow in both numbers and importance. 2,395 works were exhibited in 1904, and in 1905, the Salon showed 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. But the Société's inclusive principles meant it would always be subject to the criticism that it valued quantity over quality: in 1926 the critic Louis Vauxcelles estimated that only 100 of the 3,726 artworks were of any value.
1902-1904: Towards a New Classical Canon
1902-04 continued the success seen in the 1901 Salon. Critics increasingly praised the harmony and beauty of Neo-Impressionist paintings of the Mediterranean coast. The art critic Fagus wrote in La Revue Blanche that Henri-Edmond Cross's works that year showed "the quivering of these Provencal pines, the beautiful rise towards the arabesque, towards the beautiful line, towards a new classical canon!". This year also featured a retrospective of works by Toulouse-Lautrec.
For the first time, the establishment journal Gazette des Beaux-Arts reviewed the annual Salon in 1903, marking the coming of age of the Indépendants. In 1903, Jean Metzinger sent three paintings to the Salon des Indépendants, 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. contrasting the paintings with a Renaissance-style sculpture that shared the room with them.
At the 1905 Indépendants Henri Matisse exhibited with Albert Marquet, Jean Puy, Henri Manguin, Othon Friesz, Raoul Dufy, Kees van Dongen, André Derain, Maurice de Vlaminck, Charles Camoin and Jean Metzinger. This exhibition was reviewed by Vauxcelles in Gil Blas on 4, 18 and 23 March 1905.
Matisse exhibited the proto-Fauve painting Luxe, Calme et Volupté. In the Divisionist technique and brightly colored, it was painted in 1904, after a summer spent working in St. Tropez on the French Riviera alongside the neo-Impressionist painters Paul Signac and Henri-Edmond Cross. The painting is Matisse's most important work in which he used the Divisionist technique advocated by Signac, which Matisse had first adopted after reading Signac's essay, "D'Eugène Delacroix au Néo-impressionisme" in 1898. Signac purchased the work after the 1905 Salon des Indépendants.
Matisse is in charge of the hanging committee, assisted by Metzinger, Bonnard, Camoin, Laprade Luce, Manguin, Marquet, Puy and Vallotton.
In 1906 Metzinger had acquired enough prestige to be elected to the hanging committee of the Salon des Indépendants, in addition to his entry of eight works.
1907, the wholesale transformation
In the spring of 1906 Georges Braque exhibited his works for the first time at the Salon des Indépendants. At the exhibition of 1907, held from 20 March to 30 April, six paintings by Braque were exhibited. Five were purchased directly at the Salon des Indépendants by the art dealer Wilhelm Uhde for a total price of 505 FF. The sixth work was presumably bought by the art dealer Kahnweiler.
André Derain exhibited his Dancer at Le Rat Mort, painted during the winter of 1906, and his large Bathers (Museum of Modern Art, New York) of early 1907. No longer truly Fauve, this work is close to Cézanne in its angular form and tonal modeling.
thumb|right|[[Henri Matisse, 1907, Blue Nude (Souvenir de Biskra), oil on canvas. 92 x 140 cm, Baltimore Museum of Art]]
Matisse's Blue Nude (Souvenir de Biskra) also appeared at the 1907 Indépendants, entitled Tableau no. III. Vauxcelles writes on the topic of Nu bleu:
<blockquote>I admit to not understanding. An ugly nude woman is stretched out upon grass of an opaque blue under the palm trees... This is an artistic effect tending toward the abstract that escapes me completely. (Vauxcelles, Gil Blas, 20 March 1907) The painting, already a certain distance from Fauvism, was deemed so ugly students burned it in effigy at the 1913 Armory Show in Chicago, where it had toured from New York.
In addition to the works of Matisse, Derain and Braque, the Indépendants of 1907 included six works (each) by Vlaminck, Dufy, Metzinger, Delaunay, Camoin, Herbin, Puy, and Valtat, and three by Marquet.
Vauxcelles described this group of 'Fauves':
<blockquote>A movement I consider dangerous (despite the great sympathy I have for its perpetrators) is taking shape among a small clan of youngsters. A chapel has been established, two haughty priests officiating. MM Derain and Matisse; a few dozen innocent catechumens have received their baptism. Their dogma amounts to a wavering schematicism that proscribes modeling and volumes in the name of I-don't-know-what pictorial abstraction. This new religion hardly appeals to me. I don't believe in this Renaissance... M. Matisse, fauve-in-chief; M. Derain, fauve deputy; MM. Othon Friesz and Dufy, fauves in attendance... and M. Delaunay (a fourteen-year-old-pupil of M. Metzinger...), infantile fauvelet. (Vauxcelles, Gil Blas, 20 March 1907)
Gelett Burgess writes in The Wild Men of Paris:
<blockquote>"Though the school was new to me, it was already an old story in Paris. It had been a nine-days’ wonder. Violent discussions had raged over it; it had taken its place as a revolt and held it, despite the fulmination of critics and the contempt of academicians. The school was increasing in numbers, in importance. By many it was taken seriously. At first, the beginners had been called "The Invertebrates." In the Salon of 1905 they were named "The Incoherents." But by 1906, when they grew more perfervid, more audacious, more crazed with theories, they received their present appellation of "Les Fauves"—the Wild Beasts. And so, and so, a-hunting I would go!"<br><br>
"It was Matisse who took the first step into the undiscovered land of the ugly. Matisse himself, serious, plaintive, a conscientious experimenter, whose works are but studies in expression, who is concerned at present with but the working out of the theory of simplicity, denies all responsibility for the excesses of his unwelcome disciples."<br><br>
"Picasso, keen as a whip, spirited as a devil, mad as a hatter, runs to his studio and contrives a huge nude woman composed entirely of triangles, and presents it in triumph. What wonder Matisse shakes his head and does not smile! He chats thoughtfully of the "Harmony and volume" and "architectural values," and wild Braque climbs to his attic and builds an architectural monster which he names Woman, with balanced masses and parts, with openings and columnar legs and cornices. Matisse praises the direct appeal to instinct of the African wood images, and even a sober Dérain, a co-experimenter, loses his head, moulds a neolithic man into a solid cube, creates a woman of spheres, stretches a cat out into a cylinder, and paints it red and yellow!"<br><br>
"Metzinger once did gorgeous mosaics of pure pigment, each little square of color not quite touching the next, so that an effect of vibrant light should result. He painted exquisite compositions of cloud and cliff and sea; he painted women and made them fair, even as the women upon the boulevards fair. But now, translated into the idiom of subjective beauty, into this strange Neo-Classic language, those same women, redrawn, appear in stiff, crude, nervous lines in patches of fierce color."</blockquote>
1909, simplified forms
According to John Golding's influential history of Cubism published in 1959, it was at the Salon des Indépendants of 1909, held 25 March through 2 May, that one of the first Cubist painting was exhibited to the public: Little Harbor in Normandy (Petit port en Normandie), no. 215, entitled Paysage, by Georges Braque (Art Institute of Chicago). On 25 March 1909, Louis Vauxcelles qualifies the works of Braque (Bracke, sic) exhibited at the Salon des Indépendants as "bizarreries cubiques" (cubic oddities). In Room 16 hung works by Derain, Dufy, Friesz, Laprade, Matisse, Jean Puy, Rouault and Vlaminck.
1910, ignorant geometers
thumb|[[Henri Rousseau (Le Douanier), 1910, The Dream, MoMA. Exhibited at the 1910 Indépendants a few months before his death]]
Gleizes exhibits in the Salon des Indépendants for the first time: Portrait de René Arcos and L'Arbre, two paintings in which the emphasis on simplified geometric form overwhelms to a large extent the representational interest of the painting.
According to Gleizes's memoirs, Alexandre Mercereau introduces him to Metzinger, but only after the Salon d'Automne do they become seriously interested in each other's work. It is suspected that Lolo belonged to Frédéric Gérard (Le Père Frédé), owner of the cabaret Lapin Agile in Montmartre. Roland Dorgelès and two friends, André Warnod et Jules Depaquit, attached a paint brush to the tail of the animal. The donkey did the rest. The painting sold for 400FF (equal to 1,257 Euros today) and was donated by Dorgelès to the Orphelinat des Arts. The painting forms part of the permanent collection at l'Espace culturel Paul Bédu (Milly-la-Forêt).
1911, the major scandal of Cubism
thumb|upright|left|[[Henri Le Fauconnier, 1910-11, L'Abondance (Abundance), oil on canvas, Gemeentemuseum Den Haag. Exhibited at the 1911 Indépendants]]
thumb|upright|right|[[Albert Gleizes, 1911, Le Chemin, Paysage à Meudon (Paysage avec personnage), oil on canvas, 146.4 x 114.4 cm. Exhibited at Salon des Indépendants, 1911. Stolen by Nazi occupiers from the home of collector Alphonse Kann during World War II, returned to its rightful owners in 1997]]
thumb|upright|right|[[Jean Metzinger, 1910–11, Deux Nus (Two Nudes, Two Women), oil on canvas, 92 x 66 cm, Gothenburg Museum of Art, Sweden. Exhibited at the first Cubist manifestation, Room 41 of the 1911 Salon des Indépendants, Paris]]
thumb|upright|right|[[Robert Delaunay, 1911, Champs de Mars. La Tour rouge, Art Institute of Chicago. Exhibited at Salon des Indépendants, 1911]]
The newly formed Montparnasse group (who held meetings not just at Le Fauconnier's studio, but at the cafés Le Dôme, La Coupole, La Closerie des Lilas, Le Select, and Café de la Rotonde) together with other young painters who also want to emphasise a research into form (as opposed to color) take over the hanging committee of the Salon des Indépendants ensuring that the works of painters now dubbed 'Cubists' would be shown together. Gleizes, Metzinger, Le Fauconnier, Delaunay, Léger and Marie Laurencin (at the request of Apollinaire) are shown together in Room 41. During the summer, Gleizes is in close contact with Metzinger, who has recently moved to Meudon. Both are discontent with the conventional perspective mechanism. They have long conversations about the nature of form and perception. They agree that traditional painting gives a static and incomplete idea of the subject as experienced in life. Things, they conclude, are in fact dynamic, observed to move, are seen from different angles and can be captured at successive moments in time. Le Fauconnier, Gleizes, Léger, Metzinger and Archipenko formed the core of the hanging committee at the 1912 Indépendants. The common hall, room 20, in which the Cubists placed themselves became the nucleus of the exhibition. but was withdrawn prior to the exhibition — Roger de La Fresnaye exhibited Artillerie (no. 1235) — Robert Delaunay showed his monumental Ville de Paris (no. 868) — Jean Metzinger exhibited La Femme au Cheval (Woman with a horse) and Le Port — Fernand Léger showed La Noce — Henri Le Fauconnier, Le Chasseur (The Huntsman) — and the newcomer Juan Gris exhibited his Portrait of Picasso.
The art critic Olivier-Hourcade writes of this exhibition in 1912 and its relation to the creation of a new French school: "Metzinger with his Port, Delaunay with Paris, Gleizes with his Baigneuses, are close to this real and magnificent result, this victory comes from several centuries: the creation of a school of painting, 'French' and absolutely independent."
Gleizes, on the other hand, would write in 1913 of the Cubist movements continual evolution:
And regarding the reception received by the Cubists at the Salon des Indépendants and Salon d'Automne Gleizes writes: