The Salon of 1761 was an art exhibition held at the Louvre in Paris. Staged during the reign of Louis XV and at a time when the Seven Years' War against Britain and Prussia was at its height, it reflected the taste of the Ancien régime during the mid-eighteenth century. The biannual Salon was organised by the Académie Royale. Jean Siméon Chardin was in charge of choosing hanging locations for the two hundred or so works on display. A number of submissions were Rococo in style. The art critic Denis Diderot wrote extensively about the Salon.
The exhibition was notable for the paintings of Jean-Baptiste Greuze who displayed fourteen works including The Laundress and The Village Bride. François Boucher submitted a pastoral work Shepherd and Shepherdess Reposing. The Swedish artist Alexander Roslin produced portraits both of Boucher and his wife Marie-Jeanne. Louis-Michel van Loo exhibited his Portrait of Louis XV, now a lost work but with several contemporary copies surviving. Joseph Vernet displayed two versions of View of Bayonne, part of his Views of the Ports of France series. Charles-André van Looexhibited Mary Magdalene in the Desert and Jean-Baptiste-Henri Deshays's The Martyrdom of Saint Andrew, which were praised by Diderot.
