Marie-Emanuelle Bayon and the Salon as an Eighteenth-Century Social Strategy

Although most salonnières of the eighteenth century were members of the elite European classes, this was not always the case. In some instances, professional artists became salon hostesses themselves. This chapter discusses one such story – that of Marie-Emanuelle Bayon (1746–1825), a professional composer and keyboardist who went from being a salon habituée and participant to assuming the role of hostess herself. While the surviving evidence about Bayon’s life and career is scant, it seems that Bayon may have used the institution of the salon as part of a strategy to navigate the complexities of being a woman artist. On the one hand, she needed to make a living through her artistry, and for this, she attained the patronage of her wealthy contemporaries, as well as taking up opportunities for teaching and publication. On the other, she needed to balance displays of her creativity and talent with the strictures that were increasingly placed on women around public performance and participation in the public sphere. Thus, even as some women sought opportunities to perform at venues such as the Concert Spirituel, there is no record that Bayon ever performed publicly. This chapter suggests that this may have been a deliberate decision to avoid exposing herself to the scrutiny and criticism that sometimes resulted from such public activities. She appears to have used the institution of the salon, first as habituée and later as salonnière , to navigate these social constraints.