Salon

Webster's Dictionary of the English Language

·noun An apartment for the reception of company; hence, in the plural, fashionable parties; circles of fashionable society.

II. Salon ·add. ·noun An apartment for the reception and exhibition of works of art; hence, an annual exhibition of paintings, sculptures, ·etc., held in Paris by the Society of French Artists;

— sometimes called the Old Salon. New Salon is a popular name for an annual exhibition of paintings, sculptures, ·etc., held in Paris at the Champs de Mars, by the Societe Nationale des Beaux-Arts (National Society of Fine Arts), a body of artists who, in 1890, seceded from the Societe des Artistes Francais (Society of French Artists).