“Salon style” refers to a method of hanging paintings from floor to ceiling, originating in the 1670s at the Académie royale de peinture et de sculpture, in Paris. The style was named after the room in the Louvre where the Académie’s annual exhibitions were held – the Salon Carré. These were prestigious events for artists, while also allowing visitors to engage in discussions and criticism of the works.
This style of exhibition became popular throughout Europe and, later, in North America. In Canada, the Art Association of Montreal (1860), the Ontario Society of Artists (1872) and the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts (1880) all followed this European model of hanging works until the early 1900s, when modernist trends began favouring more generously spaced installations.
James Kerr-Lawson
Cellardyke, Scotland, 1862 London, England, 1939
La Caterina c. 1887–89
oil on canvas
Purchased 1981 (no. 26539)
Maurice Cullen
St. John’s, Newfoundland, 1866 Chambly, Quebec, 1934
New Bedford, Massachusetts, 1857 Ottawa, Ontario, 1946
The Photographer 1896
oil on canvas
Royal Canadian Academy of Arts diploma work, deposited by the artist, Ottawa, 1896 (no. 126)
James Wilson Morrice
Montreal, Quebec, 1865 Tunis, Tunisia, 1924
Blanche Baume c. 1911–12
oil on canvas
Gift of G. Blair Laing, Toronto, 1989 (no. 30479)
David B. Milne
Burgoyne, Ontario, 1882 Bancroft, Ontario, 1953
The Bright Pillows 1914
oil on canvas
Purchased 1961 (no. 14512)
James Wilson Morrice
Montreal, Quebec, 1865 Tunis, Tunisia, 1924
Flowers c. 1911–12
oil on canvas
Vincent Massey Bequest, 1968 (no. 15536)
James Wilson Morrice
Montreal, Quebec, 1865 Tunis, Tunisia, 1924
Landscape, Provence c. 1922
oil on canvas
Bequest of Virginia E. Stikeman, Montreal, 2010 (no. 43225)
Algonquin artist
Canoe early 20th century
birch bark, white cedar, spruce roots and spruce gum. Canadian Canoe Museum, Peterborough
Working with flexible birch bark (wigwas), Indigenous builders produce strong, beautiful canoes with designs that emerge as much
from the properties of their material as from their own visions. This canoe features a moose as well as ancient water symbols along its
gunwale. Made with this rot-resistant bark, root (widab) and pine gum (pigiw), the vessel is light, sturdy and built to last. Birch bark is
also used as a medicine by the Anishnaabe people.
Atonokewinini
Chímán chibwamashi 20th century
wígwás, wákikijik, minahig wadub, mínahigo pigiw. kiyawigáziwag Canadian chímán wábandahídiwagamig