Salon of 1773

The Salon of 1773 was an art exhibition held at the Louvre in Paris. Part of the regular series of Salons organised by the Académie Royale, it ran from 25 August to 25 September 1773. It was the last to take place during the reign of Louis XV.
Stylistically the previously dominant rococo was being challenged by the emerging Neoclassicism. Joseph-Marie Vien, generally considered one of the pioneers of Neoclassicism, exhibited a varied selection of paintings. Amongst his submissions was the history painting Saint Louis Handing Over the Regency to His Mother.
Claude-Joseph Vernet submitted the expressive landscape painting Seaport by Moonlight, one of a series of four pictures commissioned by the royal mistress Madame du Barry, depicting different times of the day. The sculptor Jean-Antoine Houdon displayed several works acquired by Catherine the Great. Drawing close to the end of his career the genre painter Jean Siméon Chardin exhibited Woman Drawing Water from a Water Urn, a version of a work he had originally displayed at the Salon of 1737.