Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts (SNBA) term under which two groups of French artists united, the first for some exhibitions in the early 1860s, the second since 1890 for annual exhibitions.

Established in 1862, the Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts was first chaired by the writer Théophile Gautier, with the painter Aimé Millet as deputy chairman. The committee consisted of the painters Eugène Delacroix, Albert-Ernest Carrier-Belleuse, Puvis de Chavannes and among the exhibitors were Léon Bonnat, Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux, Charles-François Daubigny, Gustave Doré, and Édouard Manet. In 1864, just after the death of Delacroix, the society organized a retrospective exhibition of 248 paintings and lithographs of this famous painter and step-uncle of the emperor - and ceased to mount further exhibitions.

In 1890, the Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts was re-vitalised under the rule of Ernest Meissonier, Puvis de Chavannes, Jules Dalou, Auguste Rodin, Carolus-Duran, Bracquemond and Albert-Ernest Carrier-Belleuse, and since then its annual exhibition was reviewed as the Salon de Champ-de-Mars, traditionally opening a fortnight later than the official Salon de Champs-Élysées, organised by the Société des Artistes Français. In both societies the president was a painter and the vice-president a sculptor. The first president of the Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts was Ernest Meissonier, but he died soon, and the vice-president was Jules Dalou. The second president was Puvis de Chavannes and the vice-president was Auguste Rodin.

Source: Wikipedia