Foreword / Albert Boime -- Preface / Elizabeth Broun -- Author's preface -- Background: ideas and practices developed in the early Salons -- 1800 to 1870: The Napoleonic Salons: grandiose visions ; Salons of the July Monarch: middle-class patronage ; Second Empire Salons: a closer relationship with French art -- 1872-1899: Behind the scenes in Paris ; In the galleries of the Salons: themes and imagery ; Back home again: the impact of the Salon experience -- Notes -- Awards to American Salon exhibitors, 1800-1899 -- List of American exhibitors and their works, 1800-1899