Détail de Decapitación de Juan el bautista (1869). Pierre Puvis de Chavannes Pierre Puvis de Chavannes (14 December 1824 – 24 October 1898) was a French painter, who became the president and co-founder 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. Emile Zola described his work as ‘an art made of reason, passion, and will.