Salon d’Automne

The Salon d’Automne was founded in 1903 in the basement of the Petit Palais. It was initiated by a group of artists and intellectuals gathered around the architect Frantz Jourdain, including Hector Guimard, Eugène Carrière, Georges Desvallières, Pierre Bonnard, Georges Rouault, Félix Vallotton, Édouard Vuillard, and Henri Matisse. Conceived in defiance of academic traditions, the salon was established as an independent exhibition that promoted avant garde practices and innovative artistic ideas, with an emphasis on multidisciplinary approaches and equality among the arts.

In the postwar period, it continued as a major annual juried exhibition, held at the Grand Palais, presenting a wide range of modern and contemporary art across both figurative and abstract practices. After more than a century of activity, the Salon d’Automne continues as an annual exhibition.