Salon de la Rose + Croix

Salon de la Rose + Croix.
Art exhibition held annually in Paris from 1892 to 1897. It was organized by the Rosicrucians, an esoteric brotherhood (allegedly founded in the 15th century by one Christian Rosenkreuz) that in the late 19th century had close connections with the Symbolist movement. The order's symbol, reflecting the name, was a rose and cross combined. Joséphin Péladan (1859–1918), a man of letters who called himself Sâr (i.e. High Priest) Péladan, founded a lodge of the brotherhood in France and this organized the exhibitions. They became a focal point of Symbolism, and the catalogue to the first exhibition said its objects were ‘to destroy realism and to bring art closer to Catholic ideas, to mysticism, to legend, myth, allegory, and dreams’.