Salon of 1875
The Salon of 1875 was an art exhibition held at the Palace of Industry in Paris from 1 May to 29 June 1875. It took place during the Belle Époque when Academic art was at its height. Traditionally the Salon was the undisputed premier exhibition held in France, but a Salon des Refusés was held that year featuring works from the Impressionist movement.
Nonetheless, Édouard Manet featured at the Salon of 1875 with one his first overtly impressionistic work Argenteuil, depicting a couple by the River Seine. Jules Lefebvre was awarded a gold medal for Chloé, a nude painting featuring the naiad of the same name. It later became one of the best-known paintings in Australia.
Other works on display included Léon Bonnat's Portrait of the Madame Pasca featuring a depiction of a celebrated actress by Léon Bonnat. Alphonse Legros, a French painter based in Britain, displayed his genre painting The Tinker. Jean-Paul Laurens exhibited the history painting The Excommunication of Robert the Pious. Alexandre Cabanel's biblical painting Thamar showed the continued influence of Romanticism on his work. Fernand Cormon's The Death of Ravana combines Orientalism and the stylistic legacy of Romanticism which had been at its peak in the first half of the nineteenth century. The architect Ferdinand Dutert was awarded with a gold medal for his submitted designs.