Salon · 1892
Galerie Durand-Ruel – first Salon de la Rose+Croix
Address · 11, rue Le Peletier, 75009 Paris
Metro · Le Peletier (7) / Richelieu – Drouot (8, 9)
Today · Fate unknown. The Durand-Ruel gallery has left the premises; the building's current use has not been checked.
The story
Paul Durand-Ruel, the Impressionists' historic dealer, owned a gallery that opened onto both rue Laffitte and rue Le Peletier, in the heart of the 9th arrondissement's art-dealing district. Nothing predisposed him to host painters hostile to Naturalism and Impressionism. Churton stresses that it was the charm and above all the money of Count Antoine de La Rochefoucauld, Péladan's patron, that made it possible to rent his rooms in 1892.
The first Salon de la Rose+Croix opened on Thursday 10 March 1892, after a mass at Saint-Germain-l'Auxerrois. According to the figures quoted by Churton, hundreds of carriages were parked and the police had to stop the traffic. Visitors in the first hours paid a high price. On show were Aman-Jean, Bernard, Delville, Filiger, Hodler, Khnopff, Osbert, Séon, Schwabe and many others, in rooms decorated with flowers; Puvis de Chavannes, Moreau, Verlaine and even Zola came by.
This society success would not last: the gallery, considered too expensive, was not rented again for the following Salons, and La Rochefoucauld soon broke with Péladan. The Durand-Ruel gallery has since left rue Le Peletier. The address remains a milestone in the history of Symbolist art: it was here that Péladan's aesthetic Rose+Croix first showed itself to the wider Parisian public. For the walker it is just a facade on a shopping street, but the neighborhood still bears traces of the old Paris art market.
To be checked · The Durand-Ruel gallery had two entrances (16, rue Laffitte and 11, rue Le Peletier); the marker is placed on the rue Le Peletier side, at estimated coordinates.