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ABSTRACT
In 1948, the seventh Olympic Art Competitions took place in London. The fact that such artistic competitions were conceptualized by Pierre de Coubertin and formed part in the Olympic program in the first half of the twentieth century is not commonly known. And although international sport historians researched different aspects of the Olympic Art Competitions since the 1980s, they have not sufficiently addressed possible artistic influences for such a concept and therefore treat them as a matter of fact. Particularly the fact that Pierre's father, Charles Louis Frédy de Coubertin (1822–1908), had been a famous painter at his time is overlooked up to now. This article traces the artistic background of the father and illustrates how his profession as Fine Art Salon painter influenced Pierre de Coubertin's concept of the Olympic Art Competitions. Subsequently, the paper compares organizational elements of the Fine Art Salons with those of the Olympic Art Competitions and unveils interesting parallels. Concerning the sources used, this article draws on art history sources as well as on unpublished material which was discovered in the archives of the descendants of the Coubertin family.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.
Notes
1. Pierre de Coubertin, Une campagne des vingt-et-un ans (Paris: Plon-Nourrit, 1909), 194. The French text: ‘[C]inq concours … qui seraient désormais annexés aux Olympiades et feraient partie au même que les concours athlétiques. Les œuvres présentées devraient être inspirées par l'idée sportive ou se référer directement aux choses du sport. Elles seraient soumises à l’examen des jurys internationaux. Les œuvres primées seraient autant que possible exposées, publiées ou exécutées (selon qu’il s’agirait d’œuvres picturales, architecturales, sculpturales, ou littéraires – ou enfin musicales ou dramatiques) au cours des Jeux.’ Unless otherwise indicated, all translations are by the author.
2. Richard Stanton, The Forgotten Olympic Art Competitions (Victoria, BC: Trafford, 2000); Bernhard Kramer, Die Olympischen Kunstwettbewerbe von 1912 bis 1948. Ergebnisse einer Spurensuche (Weimar: Galas, 2004).
3. The sports historians Norbert Müller and Christian Wacker use the term ‘Salon de Paris’, while the art historian Fae Brauer calls it the ‘Paris Salon’. In line with the recent research by art historians James Kearns and Alister Mill, this article uses the term Fine Art Salon.
4. Ansgar Molzberger, Die Olympischen Spiele 1912 in Stockholm: Zwischen Patriotismus und Internationalität (Köln: Academia, 2012), 133; Pierre Gricius, ‘Painter Jean Jacoby and Sculptor Frantz Heldenstein–A Pair of Unknown Luxemburg Medalists and the Story of the Olympic Art Competitions’, Journal of Olympic History 18 (2010): 12, http://library.la84.org/SportsLibrary/JOH/JOHv18n1/JOHv18n1g.pdf (accessed February 22, 2012); Roland Renson, The Games Reborn: The VIII Olympiad Antwerp 1920 (Antwerp: Pandora, 1988); Jean Yves Guillain, Art & Olympisme–Histoire du concours de peinture (Biarritz: Atlantica, 2004), 75; Anne Martin-Fugier, Les salons de la IIIe République. Art, littérature, politique (Paris: Perrin, 2003), 141; Ruud Paauw and Jaap Visser, Model voor de Toekomst: Olympische Spelen van Amsterdam 1928./Model for the Future: Amsterdam Olympic Games 1928 (Kats: Uitgeverij de Buitenspelers, 2008). The information available on these competitions is not very detailed, however, as most documents were destroyed when The Hague was bombed during the Second World War: Ruud Paauw, e-mail message to the author, May 20, 2013.
5. Jean Durry, ‘Sports, Olympism and the Fine Arts’, in International Olympic Academy – Report of the 26th Session (Athens: International Olympic Academy, 1986), 142–51, http://www.ioa.org.gr/files/pdf71986.pdf (accessed May 4, 2016).
6. Nikolaos Nissiotis, ‘The Olympism, Sport and Aesthetics with reference to the Work of Pierre de Coubertin’, in International Olympic Academy – Report of the 26th Session (Athens: International Olympic Academy, 1986), 83–92, http://www.ioa.org.gr/files/pdf71986.pdf (accessed May 4, 2016). Douglas Brown, ‘Theories of Beauty and Modern Sport: Pierre de Coubertin’s Aesthetic Imperative for the Modern Olympic Movement 1894–1914’ (PhD diss., University of Western Ontario, 1997). Arnd Krüger, ‘Coubertin’s Ruskinianism’, in Olympic Perspectives. 3rd International Symposium for Olympic Research, eds Robert K. Barney et al. (London, ON: University of Western Ontario, 1996), 31–42; Arnd Krüger, ‘“The Masses are much more Sensitive to the Perfection of the Whole than to Any Separate Details”: The Influence of John Ruskin’s Political Economy on Pierre de Coubertin’, Olympika 4 (1996): 25–44. Additional publications on this topic are Jeffrey Seagrave and Dikaia Chatziefstathiou, ‘The Aesthetic Olympic Visions of Pierre de Coubertin’, in Esporte et Sociedade 4 (2009): 1–28; Yves-Pierre Boulongne, ‘The Presidencies of Demetrius Vikelas and Pierre de Coubertin’, in One Hundred Years: The Ideas – The Presidents – The Achievements, ed. International Olympic Committee (Lausanne: International Olympic Committee, 1994), 200; John MacAloon, This Great Symbol: Pierre de Coubertin and the Origin of the Modern Olympic Games (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1981); Allen Guttmann, The Olympics – A History of the Modern Games (Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1992); Andrew Edgar, ‘The Aesthetics of the Olympic Art Competitions’, Journal of the Philosophy of Sport 39 (2012): 185–199.
7. Pierre de Coubertin published the book Décoration, pyrotechnie, harmonies, cortèges: Essai de Ruskinianisme sportif à l’usage des sociétés de gymnastique et de sport ([S.l.]: Société des sports populaires, 1911). Signature in the IOC archive CIO MA 16271classif.: 327:82 COU”dec.
8. Donald Masterson, ‘The Modern Olympic Games and the Arts’, in International Olympic Academy – Report of the 26th Session (Athens: International Olympic Academy, 1986), 104, http://www.ioa.org.gr/files/pdf71986.pdf (accessed May 4, 2016). The conference took place from May 23 to 25, 1906, in Paris with approximately 60 participants, among them Jules Clarètie, Courcy Laffan, Maurice Poettecher, Frantz Jourdain, Émile Blémont, Bourgault-Ducourray, Pierre Gaston-Mayer, Mr Truffier, Mr Griset, Dr. Léon Petit, Prof. Decanchy, Mr Radiguer and Mr Poilpot. Norbert Müller, Pierre de Coubertin, 1863–1937. Olympism. Selected Writings (Lausanne: International Olympic Committee, 2000), 614–21. A selection of additional authors: Norbert Müller, ‘Paris 1906–Inviting the artists’, Journal of Olympic History – Special Issue (2009): 145; Douglas Brown, ‘Theories of Beauty and Modern Sport’, 138, 215; Susan Bandy, ‘The Olympic Celebration of the Arts’, in The Olympic Games in Transition, eds Jeffrey Segrave and Donald Chi (Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics, 1988), 163–69; Jean Durry, ‘Pierre de Coubertin: l’esthétique et le sport’, in The Relevance of Pierre de Coubertin Today – Report of the Symposium at the University of Lausanne, ed. Norbert Müller (Niedernhausen: Schors, 1987), 265–75; Susanna Halpert Levitt, ‘The 1984 Olympic Arts Festival: Theatre’ (PhD diss., University of California, 1990); Donald W. Masterson, ‘The Relationship of Art and Sport: The Relevance of Coubertin’s View Today’, in Müller, The Relevance of Pierre de Coubertin, 277–88; Norbert Müller, One Hundred Years of Olympic Congresses 1894–1994 (Lausanne: International Olympic Committee, 1994); Andrea Petersen, ‘The Olympic Art Competitions 1912–1948’, Sport Science Review (1989): 44–51; Jean Durry, ‘The Fine Arts and the Olympic Games’, International Olympic Academy 15 (1976): 205–20; Norbert Müller, ‘Paris 1906 – Une invitation aux artistes’, in Pierre de Coubertin and the arts, eds Norbert Müller and Christian Wacker (Lausanne: Comité International Pierre de Coubertin, 2008), 86–92; Louis Callebat, Pierre de Coubertin (Paris: Fayard, 1988), 117; Molzberger, Olympische Spiele 1912, 131–2; Allen Guttmann, The Olympics, 28; Gricius, ‘Painter Jean’, 11.
9. Pierre de Coubertin published the Revue Olympique between 1901 and 1914. Pierre de Coubertin, ‘Le Grand Marriage’, Revue Olympique 6 (1906): 83, 93–6; Brown, ‘Theories of Beauty’, 195; Callebat, Pierre de Coubertin, 87. It is important to note that a contradiction exists between the state of research and the author’s literature review. Norbert Müller and Douglas Brown mention a conference article published in Le Figaro on 16 June 1904. A review of all 1904 Le Figaro issues does not corroborate that statement.
10. Brown, ‘Theories of Beauty’, 120, 183. Compared to other authors, Brown’s work contains the most thorough research concerning artistic questions.
11. Nikolaos Yalouris, ‘The Sculpture of the Temple of Zeus at Olympia’, in International Olympic Academy – Report of the 26th Session (Athens: International Olympic Academy, 1986), 53–64, http://www.ioa.org.gr/files/pdf71986.pdf (accessed May 4, 2016). Additional publications: Dikaia Chatziefstathiou and Ian Henry, ‘Hellenism and Olympism: Pierre de Coubertin and the Greek Challenge to the Early Olympic Movement’, Sport in History 27 (2007): 24–43; Norbert Müller, ‘Pierre de Coubertin and Greek Antiquity’, in Internationale Einflüsse auf die Wiedereinführung der Olympischen Spiele durch Pierre de Coubertin, ed. Stephan Wassong (Kassel: Agon, 2005), 55–66.
12. Pierre de Coubertin, ‘Jeux Olympiques’, Le Messager d’Athènes / Paris 39 (1894): 287–8; Coubertin, ‘Jeux Olympiques’, Le Messager d’Athènes / Paris 42 (1894): 931–2; Pierre de Coubertin, Une Olympie Moderne (Auxerre: Jattefaux, 1910). For more information: Jean Durry, Le Miracle Grec (Lausanne: Comité International Pierre de Coubertin, 2005).
13. Lambis Nikolaou, ‘Olympism and Art’, in International Olympic Academy – Report of the 26th Session (Athens: International Olympic Academy, 1986), 78, http://www.ioa.org.gr/files/pdf71986.pdf (accessed May 4, 2016).
14. Hans Joachim Schönknecht, ‘Baron Pierre de Coubertin, der Schöpfer der modernen Olympischen Bewegung’, in Die Olympischen Spiele 1896 in Athen, ed. Karl Lennartz (Kassel: Agon, 1996), 31.
15. Brown, ‘Theories of Beauty’, 28.
16. Magdalena Mankowska, ‘Rethinking Coubertin's Vision of Olympism: Toward the Revival of Art in Sport as a Modern Principle of Physical Education’ (Thesis, University of Education in Poznán, 2010), 56, http://www.academia.edu/8062052/Rethinking_Coubertins_Vision_of_Olympis_Toward_the_Revival_of_Art_in_Sport_as_a_Modern_Principle_of_Physical_Education (accessed December 10, 2014); Yves-Pierre Boulongne, ‘Pierre de Coubertin, his roots and the Congress in Le Havre in 1897’, Olympic Review 17 (1997): 50, http://www.la84foundation.org/OlympicInformationCenter/OlympicReview/1997/oreXXVI17/ (accessed April 8, 2013).
17. Daniel Poyán, ‘Pierre de Coubertin écrivain: “Scribo ergo sum”’, in International Einflüsse auf die Wiedereinführung der Oylmpischen Spiele durch Pierre de Coubertin, ed. Stephan Wassong (Köln: Agon, 2005), 185–202.
18. Walter Borgers, ‘Vom “World’s Fair” zum olympischen Fair Play – Anmerkungen zur Vor- und Entwicklungesgeschichte zweier Weltfeste’, in International Einflüsse auf die Wiedereinführung der Oylmpischen Spiele durch Pierre de Coubertin, ed. Stephan Wassong (Köln: Agon, 2005), 125–138. Karl Lennartz, ‘Das Münchner Oktoberfest – ein Ursprung der Olymischen Spiele’, in International Einflüsse auf die Wiedereinführung der Oylmpischen Spiele durch Pierre de Coubertin, ed. Stephan Wassong (Köln: Agon, 2005), 67–88. The Oktoberfest was organised the first time for the wedding of the Bavarian king Louis in 1815. In following years the celebration was repeated with new events and exhibitions.
19. See endnote 10, above. The exhibition was shown in Warsaw (Poland) in 2004 and in 2009, in Cologne (Germany) between 2007 and 2008, in Paris (France) in 2009, in Hattingen (Germany) in 2010 and in Rio de Janeiro (Brazil) in 2016, with changes in the selection of exhibited art works.
20. Ursel Berger, ‘Der Lebenslauf von Renée Sintenis’, in Renée Sintenis – Das Plastische Werk, eds Ursel Berger and Günter Ladwig (Berlin: Rucksahldruck, 2013), 10.
21. Carl Diem, ‘Les ancêtres de Coubertin’, Revue Olympic 8 (1940): 1, library.la84.org/OlympicInformationCenter/RevueOlympique/1940/ORUF8/ORUF8b.pdf (accessed February 7, 2014). Brown, ‘Theories of Beauty’, 28.
22. Müller and Wacker, Coubertin and the arts, 33. François-Édouard Picot (1786–1868) was a famous painter and teacher. A a student of Jacques-Louis David, he participated successfully at the Paris Salons. His works show historical, religious and mythological sujets. Musée d’Orsay. Available at http://www.musee-orsay.fr/fr/espace-professionnels/professionnels/chercheurs/rech-rec-art-home/notice-artiste.html?no_cache=1&zsz=5&lnum= (accessed February, 4 2016).
23. Philippe Mariot, ‘Charles de Coubertin, peintre (1822–1908)’, in Pierre de Coubertin and the arts, ed. Norbert Müller and Christian Wacker (Lausanne: Comité International Pierre de Coubertin, 2008), 16.
24. Jacques de Navacelle (descendant of the Coubertin family) in e-mail message to the author, April 28, 2014. Yvan de Navacelle, ‘The Coubertin Family’, Journal of Olympic History 23 (2015): 16–25.
25. Brown, ‘Theories of Beauty’, 31; Marie-Thérèse Eyquem, Pierre de Coubertin: L’épopée olympique (Paris: Calmann-Lévy, 1968); Louis Callebat, Pierre de Coubertin (Paris: Fayard, 1988); Daniel Bermond, Pierre de Coubertin (Paris: Perrin, 2008); Yves-Pierre Boulongne, ‘Pierre de Coubertin, his roots’, 49–51.
26. Patrick Clastres, Mémoires de Jeunesse. Pierre de Coubertin (Paris: Nouveau Monde éditions, 2008), 32.
27. Ibid., 34. The text is also quoted in Boulongne, ‘Pierre de Coubertin, his roots’, 50; Callebat, Pierre de Coubertin, 17; Bermond, Pierre de Coubertin, 29.
28. Isabelle Compin and Anne Roquebert, Catalogue sommaire illustré des peintures du Musée du Louvre et du Musée d’Orsay (Paris: Réunion des Musées Nationaux, 1986), 229; Charles de Mourgues, Musée du Luxembourg, Notice des peintures, sculptures et dessins de l’Ecole moderne exposés dans les galeries du Musée national du Luxembourg (Paris: Mourgues frères imprimeurs, 1877); Leon Lagrange, ‘Salon de 1861’, Gazette des Beaux-Arts 6 (1861): 340, http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/cb343486585/date (accessed February 4, 2016).
29. Pietro Amato, Charles Louis de Frédy de Coubertin – Il Corteo Pontificio di Pio IX 1859 (Rome: Edizioni Musei Vaticani, 2011).
30. Renate Prochno, Konkurrenz und ihre Gesichter in der Kunst – Wettbewerb, Kreativität und ihre Wirkungen (Berlin: Akademie Verlag, 2006), 174; Gérard-Georges Lemaire, Histoire du Salon de Peinture (Paris: Klincksieck, 2004), 130. For an artist’s education in the nineteenth century, it was mandatory to attend classes with a famous painter in Paris.
31. Bruno Delarue, Les peintres à Étretat 1786–1940 (Clémencey: Terre en Vues, 2005), 114. Mourgues, Musée du Luxembourg. (Paris, 1877); Hélène Becquet and others, eds, Félicie de Fauveau. L’amazone de la sculpture (Paris: Éditions Gallimard in association with the Musée d'Orsay, 2013).
32. Concerning the family archives Geoffroy de Navacelle made a statement: ‘The family archives contain countless pictures, portraits, sketches, watercolours, and also references to musical evenings or concerts in which the Coubertins, their relations and friends participated on their various instruments’. Geoffroy de Navacelle, ‘Pierre de Coubertin – the Man, his Family, his Times’, Olympic Review 4 (1995): 44–7.
33. The author’s visits began at Château Mirville on 13 June 2014 followed by a visit to Château Coubertin on April 2, 2015, with subsequent visits to Paris on May 15, 2015 and October 27, 2015.
34. Charles de Coubertin, ‘Album’ (Collection Gilles de Navacelle, Coubertin, n.y.), titled and paged by the author.
35. Other sources in this collection are: Anonymous, ‘CH. de Coubertin–Membre de la Société des Artistes Français, Chevalier de la légion d’honneur. (1822–1908)’ (n.p., n. y.). According to Yvan de Navacelle (a descendant of the Coubertin family) in a telephone conversation with the author on April 12, 2015, the brochure was edited by Pierre’s wife, Marie de Crisenoy. Maurice de Madre, ‘Charles de Coubertin’ (unpublished manuscript, Collection Gilles de Navacelle, Paris, 1942), 5. De Madre, Charles’s nephew stated that Charles was a friend of the ‘best artists of his time’.
36. Author’s visit to the archive of Yvan de Navacelle on May 15, 2015. A leather-bound folder holds approximately 40 uninventoried and unnumbered letters. Three letter were from Charles Landelle. Author’s visit to Château de Coubertin on April 2, 2015. The Collection of Gilles de Navacelle holds 15 letters by Fauveau.
37. The one-page document bears the inventory number 764 as well as a seal, ‘M'O’. Further, there is a handwritten annotation ‘exposition universelle, 1867’, evidencing Charles’s participation therein. As no other evidence was found, the author does not elaborate this information further.
38. Sfeir-Semler, Die Maler am Pariser Salon (1992); Georges Lemaire, Histoire du Salon (2004); James Kearns and Alister Mills, eds, The Paris Fine Art Salon/Le Salon, 1791–1881 (Bern: Peter Lang, 2015). After 1881 the Société des Artistes Français took over the organisation of the Fine Art Salon.[38]
39. Sfeir-Semler, Maler am Pariser Salon, 31. Prochno, Konkurrenz, 173. The jury visit was known as ‘Friday at the Salon’. The painting Un Vendredi au Salon des Artistes Fran çais (1911) by Charles Grün captured this event impressively. Fae Brauer, Rivals and Conspirators – The Paris Salons and the Modern Art Centre (Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholar Publishing, 2013).
40. Pierre Vaisse, ‘Exposer hors du Salon’, in Kearns and Mill, Paris Fine Art Salon (see note 45), 440.
41. Ibid. 435; Sue Roe, The Private Lives of the Impressionists (London: Random House, 2007), 8.
42. Véronique Chagnon-Burke, ‘Rue Laffitte: Looking at and Buying Contemporary Art in Mid-Nineteenth-Century Paris,’ Nineteenth-Century Art Worldwide 11, no. 2 (Summer 2012), http://www.19thc-artworldwide.org/summer12/veronique-chagnon-burke-looking-at-and-buying-contemporary-art-in-mid-nineteenth-century-paris (accessed August 8, 2016). Artists who organised private exhibitions were Édouard Manet (1832–1883) and Gustave Courbet (1819–1877).
43. An example is the Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts founded by Théophile Gautier (1811–1872) and Aimé Millet (1819–1891), which ended in 1862. In 1890, Jean Louis Ernest Meissonier (1815–1891) re-started the association. Further salons emerged denying the regulations of a jury and the separation of the arts, such as the Salon des Indépendants, founded in 1884, and the Salon d’Automne, organised for the first time in 1903. Recommended reading: Constance Cain Hungerford, ‘Meissonier and the Founding of the Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts’, Art Journal 48 (1989): 71–7. Brauer, Rivals and Conspirators, 138–62, 282–328.
44. Sfeir-Semler, Maler am Pariser Salon, 136–40, 193; Hajo Düchting, Paul Cézanne 1839–1906. Natur wird Kunst (Köln: Taschen, 1989), 310. Gérard-Georges Lemaire, Histoire du Salon, 162. Laurent Cazes, ‘Usages et enjeux de l’exposition au Salon pour les peintres étrangers, 1852–1881’, in Kearns and Mill, Paris Fine Art Salon, 268. Vera Klewitz, ‘Between Capitals and Provinces – The French painter Sophie Rude (1797–1867),’ in Kearns and Mill, Paris Fine Art Salon, 233.
45. These are: Pompeji (548) and Aquaeduct (549) in 1845, Decouverte de Laocoon (985) in 1846, Interièure de Laberit (342) in 1847, Trois jeunes italiens (75) in 1848, no entry for 1849 and Halte du caravan (73) in 1850; all are annotated with the term ‘rendu’ (returned). Musée du Louvre archives, KK39 – 1845, 548, 549, KK40 – 1846, 984, KK41 – 1847, 342, KK42 – 1948, 75, KK44 – 1850, 73. Concerning that project, art historians evaluated information on artists in the Louvre archives and developed a comprehensive database that provides information about the artists’ participation, as well as biographical information from 1827 until 1850. The project with the reference AH/H008071/1 was funded by the UK’s Arts and Humanities Research Council between 2010 and 2013, http://www.salonartists.org (accessed January 21, 2016).
46. For information concerning Picot see: Harriet Griffiths, ‘The Academy and the Salon Jury, 1831–1848’, in Kearns and Mill, Paris Fine Art Salon, 185. Concerning Nieuwerkerke see: Lemaire, Histoire du Salon, 61, 107; Fernande Goldschmidt, Le comte de Nieuwerkerke – art et pouvoir sous Napoléon III. Paris: Réunion des Musées Nationaux, 2000; Arnaud Bertinet, ‘La question du Salon au Louvre 1850–70’, in Kearns and Mill, Paris Fine Art Salon, 241. Nieuwerkerke was responsible for some changes to the Fine Art Salon rules and exercised his influence until the 1870s.
47. The term ‘art world’ is used based on the definition of Howard Becker, who understands art as ‘products of networks where people interact’. Howard S. Becker, Art Worlds (Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 2008).
48. Guillain, Art and Olympisme, 150,167, 175,187; Gricius, ‘Painter Jean Jacoby’, 13.
49. Prochno, Konkurrenz, 171; Lemaire, Histoire du Salon, 131.
50. Sfeir-Semler, Maler am Pariser Salon, 302; Prochno, Konkurrenz, 173; Lemaire, Histoire du Salon, 55, 159. The elements of the ceremony were: an opening speech, speeches by politicians, and a hymn to the French art world entitled ‘artistes qui vous honorez une nation honoré!’ Sfeir-Semler, Maler am Pariser Salon, 103.
51. The IOC members, who belonged to the jury of the Olympic Art Competitions, did not show an obvious interest or expertise in art. The author identified two exceptions. One is the organising committee chairman for the 1924 Olympic Games, Marie Charles Jean Melchior de Polignac (1880–1950), who was an art collector. Guillain, Art & Olympisme, 75; Fugier, Les Salons de la IIIe République, 141. Another example is Conde Eusebi Güell i Bacigalupi (1846–1918), a juror for the 1928 Olympic Art Competition in Amsterdam. The Spanish earl was a well-known patron, sponsoring the architect Antoni Gaudí i Cornet (1852–1926), who designed the Palau Güell (1886–1890) and the Parc Güell (1900–1914) in Barcelona for the earl. Examples of the artists are Maurice Denis and Édouard Vuillard.
52. Stephanie Knecht, Document Information Officer, meeting with the author on August 17, 2013. Currently the question of whether or not these works of art are a permanent part of the museum’s collection or if they are donations cannot be answered at this point in time. Their provenance within the context of Olympic history has not been researched yet.
53. While Sfeir-Semler states that the mentions honorables had been introduced in 1831, Daniel Harkett’s research shows that it was first awarded in 1824. See: Sfeir-Semler, Maler am Pariser Salon, 91, 113. Daniel Harkett, ‘Delphine Gay the Paris Salon’, in Kearns and Mill, Paris Fine Art Salon, 76. As these art competitions were in place for many decades, a variety of different prizes was devised and awarded. The médaille d’honneur, the Prix du Salon and the médaille de première classe, supplemented by second- and third-class medals, were introduced by Comte Nieuwerkerke. See: Kearns and Mill, Paris Fine Art Salon, 491. Comprehensive research about the reward system of the French Art Salon is a desideratum in art history.
54. Charles de Coubertin, Album, 16. The painting is La Messe Pontificale du jour de Noël à Saint-Pierre de Rome (1856).
55. Pierre de Coubertin, ‘Le Rétablissement des Jeux Olympiques’, Revue de Paris 3 (1894): 184, http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k207971w/f845.image (accessed September 5, 2014).