Pierre Puvis de Chavannes was a French painter, who became the president and co-founder of the Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts. He is thought of as a symbolist in nature, even though he studied with some of the romanticists and is credited with influencing an entire generation of painters and sculptors.

Chavannes was born into an old Burgundian family. His father, a civil engineer, sent him to school first in Lyons, then to the Lycee Henri IV in Paris. Fasinated by science, Chavannes prepared for an education in science, even attending some lectures in law but after a trip to Italy, he was so struck by Piero della Francesca's frescoes that he became interested in frescoes. On his return to France, Chavannes decided to become a painter.

He studied in Paris underThomas Couture but was more influenced by Theodore Chasseriau than any of his teachers. He established himself in a studio in the Place Pigalle, where he lived until the year before his death.

Most of his large paintings were done in a studio at Neuilly in the Paris suburbs. In 1850 Puvis exhibited a Pieta at the Salon. After 1852, however, his entries were rejected for many years by the Salon jury. When he exhibited in a private gallery the public laughed at his work. In 1861 Puvis entered the Salon show again but this time he received a second-class medal. the painting was bought by the French government. Puvis presented a second painting to the state in order that the two paintings should not be separated. This lead to commissions lasting through 1875.

Chavannes' paintings reflected a variety of influences but it gradually evolved toward a personal, monumental style. He felt a need to revive, in huge compositions, the qualities of Italian fresco painting, even though he did not paint in fresco.

The first major commission of his career begun in 1876. In these paintings any previous sense of three dimensionality was renounced. Chavannes made decorations for the Sorbonne, from 1888 to 1889, then worked for four years on a scheme for the Paris City Hall. In 1893, he began murals in oil on canvas for the public library in Boston, Massachusetts. They were finished in 1895 and were very much influenced by antique art.

Many of Chavannes paintings were copied respectively by Georges Seurat Paul Gauguin, and parodied by Toulouse-Lautrec. Yet Lautrec, like many other famous artists, admired Puvis. When Pierre Puvis de Chavannes died in 1898 his work work was widely esteemed.