[2] It has been representative of the major art movements of the late 19th and 20th centuries - Pointillism, Nabism, Symbolism, Fauvism and Cubism.
The painter Albert Dubois-Pillet, also a captain in the Republican Guard, gained authority for a site, the "barquement B", rue des Tuileries, though it was disorganised.
Hundreds of artists took part, including Georges Seurat, Charles Angrand, Odilon Redon, Henri-Edmond Cross and Paul Signac, but also mediocre painters - as a 1939 article on it observed "As usual, turnips abounded there, as in all salons whatever colour they may be".
A committee of eleven members was formed on 29 July, presided over by Alfred André Guinard,[4] who signed its statutes, which the artistic press reported on, such as the Le Moniteur des arts of 3 October 1884.
[5] It gained its legal status under the 1 July 1901 law of associations on 4 December 1903 and published its first Journal officiel the following day.
[6] Very quickly after the Société's formation it opened a "Salon d'hiver" (winter salon) at the pavillon de la ville de Paris on avenue des Champs-Élysées from 10 December 1884, the first official exhibition - it included Georges Seurat's Bathers at Asnières, Paul Signac's Pont d'Austerlitz and Henri-Edmond Cross's In the jardin du Luxembourg.