In 1903, the first Salon d'Automne (Autumn Salon) was organized by Georges Rouault, André Derain, Henri Matisse, Angele Delasalle and Albert Marquet as a reaction to the conservative policies of the official Paris Salon. The exhibition almost immediately became the showpiece of developments and innovations in 20th-century painting and sculpture.
While the Salon was dominated by the painters, Jacques Villon was one of the artists who helped organize the drawing section of the first salon. Villon later would help the Puteaux Group gain recognition with showings at the Salon des Indépendants. The poet-painter-critic Tristan Klingsor was another early exhibitor.
During the Salon's early years, established artists such as Pierre-Auguste Renoir threw their support behind the new exhibition and even Auguste Rodin displayed several drawings. Since its inception, the greats and future greats of the art world such as Paul Cézanne, Henri Matisse, Paul Gauguin and Pablo Picasso have been shown here.
After viewing the boldly colored canvases of Matisse, Albert Marquet, Maurice de Vlaminck, Kees van Dongen, Charles Camoin, and Jean Puy at the Salon d'Automne of 1905, the critic Louis Vauxcelles disparaged the painters as "fauves" (wild beasts), thus giving their movement the name by which it became known, Fauvism.
After World War I, the Salon d'Automne was dominated by the works of the Montparnasse painters such as Marc Chagall, Amedeo Modigliani, Georges Braque and Georges Gimel. The Polish expressionist painter Henryk Gotlib also exhibited. The likes of Constantin Brâncuşi, Aristide Maillol, Charles Despiau, René Iché and Ossip Zadkine emerged as new forces in sculpture.
In addition to painting and sculpture, at the Salon could be found the creations in the decorative arts such as the glassworks of René Lalique, Julia Bathory as well as architectural designs by Le Corbusier. Still an exhibition of world importance, the Salon d'Automne is now into its 2nd century.
During the last decades of the 20th century, artists who exhibited at the Salon d'Automne included Edouard McAvoy, Jean Monneret, and Maurice Boitel.