a French painter, who became the co-founder and president of the Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts and whose work influenced many other artists. Though his reputation has since declined, he was a prominent painter in the early Third Republic. His work is seen as symbolist in nature, even though he studied with some of the romanticists, and he is credited with influencing an entire generation of painters and sculptors, particularly the works of the Modernists. Puvis de Chavannes is best known for his mural painting, and he came to be known as 'the painter for France', despite his present relative obscurity.
