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The French Academie Royale’s Salon was a long-standing tradition, which placed certain artists, at the forefront of art; in specific the Salon of 1785 will be reviewed as such. The review will call to attention the contemporary political, social and economic factors of France in the 18th century, specifically through the lens of notable works such as David’s portrait of Mme Pècoul, Wertmuller’s Marie-Antoinette and Her Children, and Guiard’s Self-Portrait with Two Pupils. Additionally, with examination of these portraits will show culmination of the Salon as a public forum in the pre-revolutionary France, of the late 18th century. Additionally, how this salon and those prior served as impetus for the coming revolution.
In the last three-fourths of the 1700s in France a grand cultural and artistic tradition was moved from its inception to an annual or biannual reoccurring event. The French Royal Academy, which started in 1648, created the Salon out of need for a more regular public forum in which the goal was two fold, “to acquaint the public with the progress and excellence of artistic production in France and to spur emulation among the academicians. ” Since the Academy’s inception until 1725 there was no regular forum in which both the pupils and public could view completed work the vast majority of which was destined for private collections. The Royal Academy was smart in the fact that it not only generated interest in their artists leading to more notoriety, patrons and from those money but additionally they were able to use it to improve the quality of academicians.
Over the rest of the century the Salon becomes a place known for discussion and may very well have been the foster home for pre-revolutionary thought. The Salon...

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...er’s meaning was to perpetrate Marie-Antoinette as the mother of France. As the except from Marie Antoinette: Writings on the Body of a Queen states, “Its insistent visual focus on the queen’s maternal body (reinforced by the crudely triangular composition). It also satisfied, perhaps, subliminal longings in both women for a compensatory image of maternal tenderness. ” The queen is trying to sway her public into accepting and trusting a Hapsburg¬– a foreigner. With that being said, from the public’s viewpoint there is corresponding symbolism that purports the queens disavowing of her Austrian heritage. The queen, in this portrait, has dropped the Hapsburg roses that she is normally depicted with almost as if she has been pricked by one of the thorns.
Last and certainly not least, the all female painting of Self–Portrait with Two Pupils by Adélaïde Labille–Guiard.

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