Where anyone could be a critic

"Exhibition of the Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture in the Grand Gallery of the Louvre, 1699'' (engraving), by A. Hadamart, in the show
"Modernity vs. Tradition: Art at the Parisian Salon 1750-1900," at the Redwood Library and Athenaeum, Newport, through April 8. The Salon is an annual art exhibition started by the French Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture  to foster artistic competition and let  common folk critically view and analyze the work of its Academicians. By the mid-18th Century, it had become a public forum for intense debate on  art and politics.