Comprising over 1,800 references, the present volume draws on approximately 1,500 periodical runs held in the Bibliothèque nationale and associated libraries, as well as including critical reviews published in book and pamphlet form during the July Monarchy and Second Republic. Listings have been generated from material incorporated in the Catalogue collectif des périodiques (Paris, 1967–82) and the Catalogue général des livres imprimés (Paris, 1897–1981), as well as from additional references contained in unpublished card indexes in various Paris libraries. Though the vagaries of dépôt légal have left inevitable gaps in holdings for the 1830s and 1840s, the range of sources consulted contains a bewildering variety of titles, many of which reveal an unexpected wealth of writing on the Salon. By attempting as systematic a survey as practically possible, research for this bibliography has highlighted critical reviews in hitherto neglected areas of the press, at the same time as substantially expanding the number of references available through existing repertoires, most notably Maurice Tourneux's Salons et expositions d'art à Paris 1801–1870. Essai bibliographique (Paris, 1919).

Such a quantitative increase clearly has its own value, widening the evidential base on which historians can draw in assessing variations in the critical reception of a particular object or genre. Yet, in a number of important respects, the size and diversity of the listings presented here do more than simply amplify existing sources; rather, they significantly disrupt some of the protocols habitually applied to the interpretation and understanding of nineteenth-century art-critical writing.