The changing faces of the Paris salon: Using a new dataset to analyze portraiture, 1740 –1881

This essay describes a novel dataset that facilitates the quantitative analysis of eighteenth and nineteenth-century French painting. Based on titles listed in Paris Salon livrets, assigns detailed keywords indicating content for each more than 148,000 paintings shown at Salon—the principal art exhibition era—from seventeenth to nineteenth century. To demonstrate interest utility this dataset, we present case study about genre has traditionally been neglected by both historians cultural economists: portraiture. Our shows portraiture was ubiquitous, usually representing 27% all exhibited year—more any other genre. We also trace changing demographics sitters. There were, example, dramatic increases over time how many images women were displayed. chart rise quasi-anonymous portraiture, where names sitters do not appear paintings’ but audiences from certain social classes could identify subjects. ultimately methods can be fruitfully applied historical which is now available freely online, just one similar datasets digitized studied.