Salon of 1839

The Salon of 1839 was an art exhibition held at the Louvre in Paris between 1 March and 30 April 1839 and featured submissions of paintings and sculpture. Since 1833 the Salon had switched to being held annually, organised by the Academy of Fine Arts. As was common during the July Monarchy it featured a number of works commissioned by Louis Philippe I for the Museum of French History at the Palace of Versailles. As well as the usual depictions of historic French victories, the Salon displayed several paintings depiction the ongoing French conquest of Algeria, notably Horace Vernet's The Siege of Constantine.^[1]

Romanticism remained the stylistically dominant force. Eugène Delacroix displayed Cleopatra and the Peasant, possibly inspired by William Shakespeare's tragedy Anthony and Cleopatra.^[2] It marked the breakthrough for the young Théodore Chassériau whose Susanna at Her Bath and Venus Anadyomene was widely acclaimed.^[3]

It should not be confused with the Salon de Bruxelles held later the same year in Belgium. The exhibition was followed by the Salon of 1840.