Société des Artistes Français

When the Société was established, it associated all the French artists.

The main task of the Société is to organize the Salon, since the French government ceased to do it.

In December 1890 president Bouguereau suggested that the Salon should be an exhibition of young, yet unrecognized, artists.

Ernest Meissonier, Puvis de Chavannes, Auguste Rodin and others rejected this proposal and left the organization.

They quickly created their own exhibition (Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts in 1899) that was also named the Salon, officially Salon de la Société Nationale des Beaux–Arts, in short Salon du Champs de Mars.