Puvis de Chavannes, Pierre-Cécile - The Beheading of St John the Baptist - c. 1869

Pierre Puvis de Chavannes (1824–1898) the leading French mural painter of the later 19th century. He was largely independent of the major artistic currents of his time and was much admired by a diverse group of artists and critics, including Georges Seurat, Paul Gauguin, Charles Baudelaire, and Théophile Gautier.