What is Salon painting?
[[File:Conrad Kiesel - Mandolinenspielerin (The Mandolin Player).jpg|thumb|[[Konrad Kiesel]], ''The Mandolin Player,'' end of 19th century. ]] Salon painting is a style of painting that was popular in the 19th century. The name comes from the ''Salon carré'' of the [[Louvre]], in [[Paris]]. This salon is known as [[Salon de Paris]] today. Since the time of [[Louis XV]], it was regularly used for [[Art exhibition|art exhibitions]]. These became known as ''salons''. In these salons, artworks were shown that the ruling class approved. This means, that very often, it was used for paintings that the rulng class liked.To be able to show paintings there, the artists adapted their painting styles: they made [[History painting|history paintings]], and they painted [[Mythology|mythological]] figures, in scenes that wee known from classical stories. This also gave them a [[w:pretext|pretext]] to show a lot of [[Nudity|naked skin]]. This was good, because many upper class people had [[Voyeurism|voyeuristic]] tendencies, and the people also liked to see mostly naked figures in a historical setting. [[Category:Painting styles]]