Transporting Art to the Salon

Wet paintings on horse-drawn omnibuses

Artists in nineteenth century Paris had to find a way to transport their paintings to the Salon exhibition. Some rented handcarts or hired a man to carry the painting on his back.

According to one observer, “most of these pictures are worked upon until the very last day; indeed, many of them are snatched unfinished from their easels, to receive the fini…