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Adam wrote 39 operas, mainly in the comic vein, but is probably best known for his score to the ballet Giselle (1841). 7, 8.
Alembert "was a French mathematician, mechanician, physicist, philosopher, and music theorist. Until 1759 he was, together with Denis Diderot, a co-editor of the Encyclopédie. D'Alembert's formula for obtaining solutions to the wave equation is named after him. The wave equation is sometimes referred to as d'Alembert's equation, and the fundamental theorem of algebra is named after d'Alembert in French." [preamble to Wikipedia article] 5.
Allen (born Allan Stewart Konigsberg) began wrting comic material for other comedians, then developed his own show and published under his own name. Beginning in 1969, he directed a string of madcap comedy films with himsself in the lead, but starting with Annie Hall in 1977, these have become more romantic and/or serious. He has continued to direct (now most with other actors), and holds a record for the most Oscar nominations (16), including many outright wins of this and other major awards. 10.
The towering genius of German music in the earlier 18th century, Bach was most famous in his time as an organist and choirmaster, most notably at the Thomaskirche in Leipzig. His work includes two Passions, numerous cantatas, and keyboard and orchestral works that codify and extend the possibilities of counterpoint in his time. 5.
Baker (Freda Josephine McDonald) was raised by a single Black mother in St. Louis. She made money as a teenager by dancing in the streets, then did a stint as a chorus dancer on Broadway, then came to Paris in 1925, at the age of only 19. Her first appearances in Le Revue Nègre were a sensation and before long she was in demand all over Europe. She worked for the Résistance during WW2, then embarked on a second (third?) career on both sides of the Atlantic of political activism and philanthropy. 10.
After work with Diaghilev's Ballets Russes, including the pioneering neo-classical Apollon musagète (1928, with Stravinsky) and The Prodigal Son (1929, with Prokofiev), he moved to America, where he eventually co-founded the New York City Ballet, remaining its artistic director for 35 years. One of the most influential choreographers of the century, he is especially noted for his abstract works with minimal decor but the greatest musicality. 1.
Bartholdi was born in Colmar, Alsace, and did much of his work in that region. He is best known, however, for his Liberty Enlightening the World, which he developed following a suggestion by Édouard de Laboulaye, and which was installed in New York Harbor in 1866. 1.
Baudelaire is credited with coining the term "modernism," and is held to be the first modernist poet. His masterpiece, the Les fleurs du mal (The Flowers of Evil), which hovers between sensual verse and an exotic kind of prose, was prosecuted as an offence to public morals, and the author was fined. Baudelaire was nonethless a great influence on the next generation of poets, like Verlaine, Rimbaud, and Mallarmé. 7, 9.
Although Béjart created many large expressionist works with grand themes, he is probably best known for his version of Ravel's Boléro, created for the Yugoslav ballerina Duška Sifnios, but since danced by many other female stars. 9.
Although details are sketchy, it appears that Berenguer was born in Rousillon, straddling France and Spain. He was almost certainly a knight, and his 12 surviving cansos all deal with the theme of courtly love; 8 of them also have their original music. 2.
The leading French composer of the Romantic era, Berlioz was a master of orchestration and dramatic effect. A fervent admirer of Shakespeare (and a Shakespearean actress, Harriet Smithson), his works often have a strong literary quality that can obscure their musical craftsmanship. He was unable to get a full performance of his operatic masterpice, The Trojans (1863), but it has come into its own in recent years. 7.
Binchois was praised by his contemporaries in the same breath as Dufay, though his fame has declined somewhat. He is especially memorable as a melodist, with a gift for the long expressive line in both his secular and sacred vocal work. [He may or may not be the subject of this portrait by Jan van Eyck.] 2.
Bizet's fame rests largely on his final opera, Carmen (1875), although it was not a success at its first performance. Its immense poshumous success has led to reconsideration of many of the composer's earlier works, such as his youthful Symphony in C (1855) and opera The Pearl Fishers (1863). 9.
His many works, which virtually define the French rococo style, include several elegantly erotic treatments of mythological subjects, such as his Jupiter and Callisto, but also genre scenes, erotica, and even landscapes. 4.
Nadia Boulanger became one of the great composition teachers of the 20th century, helping shape the careers ofVirgil Thompson, Aaron Copland, Elliot Carter, and many others. Although a composer herself, she put her own work aside to support that of her younger sister Lili, whom she called the true genius in the family. 10.
The son of an immigrant French dancer, Bournonville trained partly in Paris and partly in Copenhagen, where he spent the whole of his subsequent career. Not only was the the choreographer of over 50 works, including La sylphide (1836) and Napoli (1842), he institiuted a rigorous system of training which preserved their style intact to the present day—a legacy unmatched by any other ballet tradition. 8.
Arguably the leading opera composer of the mid-20th century, Britten's major operas have included Peter Grimes (1945), Billy Budd (1951), Gloriana (1953), A Midsummer Night's Dream (1960), and Death in Venice (1973), plus many stage works for smaller forces. He was equally active as a composer of instrumental music and text settings, and latterly as a conductor and accompanist. 3.
More than any other, Lancelot "Capability" Brown is associated with the natural landscape movement that transformed the design of gardens and parks in 18th-century England, and rapidly spread abroad. He was appointed Head Gardener at Stowe at the age of 26, and soon developed a practice that took him to Blenheim, Chatsworth, Harewood, and Kew, among many other estates. He also designed the houses in several of his parks. His nickname comes from his practice of assessing the "capabilities" of a site before accepting a commission. 4.
One of the founding fathers of the Renaissance, he came to prominence as a sculptor in the competition for the Florence Baptistery doors, eventually won by Ghiberti. But it was as an architect that he made his biggest impression on the city, with the churches of San Lorenzo and Santo Spirito, and his crowning achievement, the dome of Florence Cathedral. 2.
Byron, an hereditary peer, was one of the leading poets of the Romantic age, and the one whose passions and unconventional lifestyle most clearly defined the Romantic Hero, especially among his admirers in France, Germany, and Russia. His long poems Don Juan and Childe Harold's Pilgrimage are epic in scope and show his characteristic combination of action and wit. He died in Greece at the age of 36, fighting in the Greek War of Independence. 3, 7.
Though the son and grandson of sculptors, Calder initially trained as an engineer. But his mechanical ingenuity burgeoned in other directions, and he went to Paris in 1926 to study at the Académie Julian. He remained in France for seven years, much of it spent in developing miniature working models of various circus acts. Much of his later work, including the mobiles that made his name and the monumental stabiles that cemented his reputation, shows a similar sense of play and exploration. 10.
Campin has gradually emerged from scholarly shadows as the probable painter of a handful of works previously attributed to a conjectural "Master of Flémalle." In spite of the still-uncertain identification of many works associated with him, there is no doubt of his status as a key figure in the transition of Northern art from Gothic traditions to modernity. [The portrait here is by him, but probably not of him.] 2.
Marie-Antoine (Antonin) Carême was born in Paris to a poor family, but working as an apprentice patissier, he soon became known for his elaborate constructions. From there, he moved into other aspects of cookery, working for Talleyrand, Napoleon, Tsar Alexander I, and the Prince Regent in Britain. His many books essentially codified haute cuisine for the next 150 years. 11.
The daughter of a wealthy Philadelphia family, Cassatt studied in Paris and settled there in 1874. She became friends with the Impressionists, especially Degas, and exhibited in four of their shows. An early feminist, her own work featured especially the everyday lives of women. She also had an influence in persuading her wealthy friends back home to buy Impressionist paintings. 10.
Largely self-taught as a composer, he worked in the civil service until 1880. He wrote several operas, including L'étoile in 1877, but is best remembered for his orchestral pieces España (1883) and Marche joyeuse (1888). 9.
Chanel learned to sew in a convent orphanage. After flirting with a career on the stage, she opened business as a milliner in Paris, and a couturier in Deauville and Biarritz, financed by one or other of the rich men she seemed to attract with ease. Her innovation was in creating fashion for active women, employing ideas and materials from everyday sources. She was also an astute businesswoman, selling retail versions of her creations and developing accessories such as purses, shoes, and her iconic perfume Chanel No5. 11.
When working in Saint Louis, Chase caught the attention of some wealthy collectors, who funded a two-year study tour in Europe (mainly in Munich). He returned to America in 1878 as an artist versed in the heightened color and free brushwork of Impressionism, and prospered in that context both as a painter of society subjects and as a teacher. 10.
Chassériau managed to combine the styles of his teacher Ingres with that of the leading Romantic painter of his time, Delacroix, in a variety of subjects taken from history and mythology. 9.
Though not much remembered today, Chateaubriand dominated the French literary scene at the start of the 19th century, and predates many characteristic features of later Romanticism. Coming from an aristocratic family in Brittany, he eventually went to America to find himself, and spent several months living with indigenous tribes. This experience fueled his stories René and Atala, which attempt to reconcile supposed "primitive" values with his strong Christian faith. From 1814 to 1829, he held various ambassadorships. 7.
Working in the OSS during WW2, Child met her future husband, Paul Cushing Child, and accompanied him on his posting to France in 1946. Although she was not yet a cook, her first taste of French food changed her life. She enrolled in the Cordon Bleu school in Paris, studied privately with French chefs, then with two French colleagues wrote the first of her many books aimed at the American housewife, and started the now-iconic television show to promote it. 11.
His Arcadian and harbor scenes, principles of composition, and use of light earned him the reputation as the greatest of all landscape painters, and his influence especially in France, Britain, and America lasted until the mid-19th century, not only in art but also landscape gardening. 4.
Even more than his contemporary Turner, Constable was the leading English landscape painter of the 19th century. Living in East Anglia, he was influenced by the Dutch landscapists painting very similar country. He made numerous outdoor sketches of clouds and trees, with free and brilliant handling of paint, but reverted to a more sober style in his paintings for exhibition. 4.
Cooper grew up in Cooperstown NY, a community founded by his father. After being expelled from Yale, he served first as a merchant seaman and then in the US Navy. The reputation of his large literary output, once much admired both at home and abroad, now rests mainly on his five Leatherstocking Tales, especially The Last of the Mohicans (1826). 6.
Trained in Paris, Copland began writing in the style of the European avant garde, but in his ballet commissions in the 1930s and 1940s, such as Billy the Kid, Rodeo, and Appalachian Spring, he developed the open folk-inflected style that has become, for many people, the sound of American music. 10.
Born probably in Boston, Copley established himself as a portrait painter before moving permanently to London at the age of 36. He cemented his reputation with a number of history paintings such as Brook Watson and the Shark (1778), The Death of Chatham (1781), and several Revolutionary War scenes shown from the British perspective. 6.
The son of an Italian actor in Paris, Coralli trained as a dancer and enjoyed an early career in Vienna, Venice, and Milan, as a performer and choreographer. The pinnacle of his career came on his return to the Paris Opera, where he created the quintessential Romantic ballet Giselle in 1841, working with Jules Perrot on the choreography and Adolphe Adam on the music, both younger men than himself. 8.
A fiercely realist painter from the provinces who stood proudly outside the academic tradition, Courbet was nonetheless one of the most powerful figures in 19th-century French art. His vast Burial at Ornans was a succès de scandale at the Salon of 1850, and established him as the leader of the Realist movement. 7.
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The leading Neoclassical artist of his day, David replaced rococo frivolities with stern history paintings with strong moral content. He was a dedicated supporter of the Revolution and politically active as a Deputy. He was imprisoned briefly after the fall of Robespierre, but resurfaced as principal painter to Napoleon. Through his many pupils, he influenced French salon style for a generation. 6.
Debussy was one of the most original French composers of the 20th century and, with Ravel, the prime exponent of what is commonly called Impressionism, the creation of musical images through harmony, texture, and scraps of melody. Although an exquisite orchestrator, his most original works are probably those written originally for piano, including two books of Préludes from the last years of his life. 9.
The leading French painter of the Romantic movement, he is known for his brilliant Rubensian color and his dramatic compositions. Especially in the first half of his career, these included political themes, such as The Massacre at Chios (1824) and Liberty Leading the People (1830), as well as subjects from Romantic literature. He also visited North Africa, and was constantly fascinated by the exotic. 1, 2, 7, 9.
Delage was a pupil of Ravel, who thought very highly of him. As a young man, he traveled with his businessman father to Japan and India, the latter giving him material for his best-known work, Four Hindu Poems (1912). 9.
Delibes is best knows for his ballets Coppélia (1870) and Sylvia (1876), which are part of the standard repertoire. Although he wrote several lighter pieces, his only opera that is occasionally performed is Lakmé (1883) 9.
He founded the Ballets Russes in 1909. His company dominated the Parisian scene for at least a decade, and gave opportunities to such figures as the dancer Vaslav Nijinsky, the choreographer George Balanchine, the designer Léon Bakst, and the composer Igor Stravinsky. 8.
One of the key figures of the Age of Reason, his chief fame is as co-founder (with d'Alembert) and editor of the Encyclopédie, which brought together scientific knowledge and Enlightenment thought. 5.
One of the leading composers of historical and romantic operas in the bel canto era, including a trilogy featuring Queen Elizabeth I, plus comedies in both Italian and French, Donizetti nonetheless began his career with a mythological scene, Pygmalion. 8.
The most celebrated illustrator of the mid-19th century, his fame rests on the romanticism and drama of his treatment of subjects ranging from the Bible to Dante's Inferno and Coleridge's Ancient Mariner. 7.
Dove, who spent some time in France in the ferment of the first decade of the century, is credited with painting the first abstract pictures in America, although he did not exhibit them at the time. 10.
Born and trained in Moscow, Dreznin has lived in Vienna, New York, Paris, and Berlin. He has divided his time between careers as concert pianist and composer. His largest project to date has been the epic musical Catherine the Great (2006). 5.
"Duchêne was a French garden designer who worked in the grand manner established by André Le Nôtre, [making him the] designer most in demand among high French society at the turn of the 20th century. [His practice]was responsible for some six thousand gardens in France and worldwide." [Wikipedia] 4.
Dufay (also spelled Du Fay and other variants) was born near Brussels. Writing in most genres and traveling widely, he was regarded as the leading composer of his time, composing for example a motet for the dedication of Brunelleschi's dome of Florence Cathedral. [The portait comes from his tomb.] 2.
Eiffel's parents took their name from the Eifel Mountains in Western Germany from which they had come, but Gustave had an entirely French education, partly supervised by his uncle, a scientist and inventor. His early engineering work building bridges for railway companies in France and Beligium enabled him to found his own company, which was responsible for his two most famous projects: the inner structure of The Statue of Liberty (1886) and the Eiffel Tower built for the Paris Exposition of 1889. 1.
Escoffier built on the foundations established by Antonin Carême, simplifying his complexities, and imposing discipline and order in his kitchens through his development of the brigade system. His skill for organization, especially in partnership with Swiss hotelier César Ritz, set a blueprint that is still the basis of restaurant practice today. 11.
Born in Monte Carlo, where his father was manager of the casino, and encouraged by Edith Piaf, Ferré became one of the leading singer-songwriters in France after WW2, performing both his own material and songs he composed to other texts, such as Baudelaire's Fleurs du mal. 9.
Fitzgerald had two major successes to his credit—This Side of Paradise (1920) and The Beautiful and the Damned (1922)—before moving to Paris, where he wrote his masterpiece, The Great Gatsby (1925). Relinquishing his position as a leading light of the "Lost Generation" of expatriates in Paris, he returned to America around the time of his wife Zelda's breakdown, then gradually descended into alcoholism himself. Despite mediocre success at first, Gatsby is now recognized as one of the great American novels. 10.
Born into a prosperous family in Saint Petersburg, Fokine trained as a dancer, but also considered careers in painting and music. This made him a natural fit for Sergei Diaghilev, who engaged him in 1909 as resident choreographer for his Ballets Russes, whose work combined many arts; his work for them included The Firebird (1910) and Petrushka (1912), both with music by Stravinsky. He later emigrated to New York, and founded the American Ballet Company. 8.
Printer, journalist, inventor, philanthropist, politician, man of science, and founding father of this country, there seems little point attempting a capsule bio fo Franklin—except perhaps to say that he too was an artist, as writer of the Poor Richard's Almanack and even occasional composer. 6.
The greatest German Romantic painter and a truly original visionary, he conceived images based on unconventional views of nature with strong, albeit enigmatic, moral implications. 7.
Growing up in an artistic family in Chicago, Fuller began her career as a child performer, then joined Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show, then moved to New York. As a dancer, she developed a new form called the Serpentine Dance in which the movements of her draperies under constantly changing light became poetic in their own right. Having trouble gaining respect in the US, she moved in 1892 to France, where she became a sensation. Rodin said that she "paved the way for the art of the future." 10.
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Influenced at first by the Impressionists, Gauguin soon abandoned that style for one that involved large flat areas of pure color. He is associated with three areas: Brittany, where he developed his style; Provence, where he lived with Van Gogh; and Tahiti, perhaps indulging a taste for the tropics inherited from his Peruvian mother. He is considered one of the giants of the Post-Impressionist period. 9.
After his family moved from the Pyrenees to Paris, Gautier grew up among many of the figures who would become part of the artistic scene of the 30s and 40s. He published his first book of poetry in 1830, and soon became known also as a critic. He was a passionate balletomane, and the groundbreaking 1841 ballet Giselle was based on his scenario. 7, 8.
Géricault's monumental Raft of the Medusa (1819) was a seminal work in French art, treating a contemporary political scandal with searing humanity coupled with a monumentality that owes much to Michelangelo. His many studies for this work, including corpses and severed limbs, his portraits of the insane, and above all his numerous paintings of horses, made him a key figure in French Romanticism until his death from a riding accident at the age of 32. 6, 7.
Born German Edward Jones to a Welsh family in the West of England, he took his given names as a nom de plume when he began to achieve success as a composer of incidental music for the theater and light operas in the Gilbert-and-Sullivan vein, such as Merrie England (1902). 3.
A leading academic painter of the mid-century, his works have been described by one critic (Lorenz Eitner) as "carefully plotted picture-plays, graced with sex, spiced with gore, and polished into waxwork lifelikeness by a technique that his admirers took for realism." 9.
Born Jacob Gershwine in New York to Jewish emigrants from Eastern Europe, he studied piano and composition, but soon found his vocation as a songwriter, mostly with his elder brother Ira (born 1896). Most of his songs have become crossover standards, as have his orchestral works Rhapsody in Blue (1924) and An American in Paris (1928). Most of his stage works are primarily containers for his songs, but his 1935 opera Porgy and Bess is an exception, a closely-developed study of African-American life. 10.
In the same generation as Botticelli, Pollaiuolo, and Verrocchio, Ghirlandaio achieved success through his ability to execute large-scale subjects that often included portraits of his wealthy patrons. He was also a remarkably sensitive in his independent portraits, including the famous Old Man and his Grandson in the Louvre. Michelangelo was one of his pupils. 2.
Girodet was a student of Jacques-Louis David's, and like him spent several years in Italy. His manner is generally more Romantic, however, with a particular interest in evocative lighting effects. In adulthood, he styles himself Girodet-Trioson, in honor of the man who adopted him (and may well have been his natural father). 7.
With François Truffaut, Godard was a leading theorist of film in the magazine Cahiers du Cinéma, founded in 1951. He first put his ideas into practice with A bout de souffle (Breathless), to a story by Truffaut, the breakthrough masterpiece of the nouvelle vague. He moved from there into a more politically-involved phase in the 1970s, and thence into the more mainstream market. 11.
Starting as a child prodigy in New Orleans, Gottschalk basically composed pieces to show off his own skills. Although rejected by the Paris Conservatoire, he made a name for himself there, impressing other virtuosi such as Liszt and Chopin. Even when he returned to the Americas, he spent most of his life in the Caribbean and Latin America, whose musics he embraced in his own. 10.
Gounod was the leading French opera composer in the third quarter of the 19th century, achieving fame with Faust and Roméo et Juliette His Philémon et Baucis, which came in between these in 1860, is a lighter opéra comique based on Ovid's story. 1, 8.
After studying with David in Paris, Gros moved to Italy. His 1796 painting of Napoleon at Arcole, done while he was there, won him the patronage of the future Emperor, and he traveled with him in many of his subsequent campaigns, besides establishing himself as a portraitist back in Paris. He was ennobled in 1824. 6, 9.
Although thinking of himself primarily as a poet, Hardy is most often remembered as the author of pastoral realist novels set in "Wessex," his name for a large swath of Southwest England, the country that he loved. While Far From the Madding Crowd ends happily, more of his novels have an elegaic pessimism that is found also in his verse. 3.
Despite the suggestions of his name, Childe Hassam came from long-established New England stock. At first largely self-taught as a painter, he went to France in 1886 to study at the Académie Julian, but quickly felt the curriculum there too restrictive and began to emulate the Impressionists instead. A prolific painter, he was influential in promoting the Impressionist style among American collectors. 10.
In contrast to his friend and fellow-member of the "Lost Generation" of American expatriates, Scott Fitzgerald, Hemingway had not published a novel by the time he arrived in Paris in 1921, but he would go on to write seven novels and numerous stories that eventually won him the Nobel Prize in Literature. He served as an ambulance driver in WW1 and fought in the Spanish Civil War (subject of his 1940 novel For Whom the Bell Tolls), working to maintain the persona as a man of action with a blunt but invigorating style. 10.
The son of a Napoleonic general, Hugo determined to "become Chateaubriand or nothing." He succeeded, whether as a poet (from 1822), a novelist (The Hunchback of Notre Dame, 1831, and Les Miserables, 1862), and a statesman (senator from 1842). His funeral attracted over two million people. 7.
Ingres was trained in the academic tradition, and indeed spent 7 years as Director of the French Academy in Rome. Although one of the great masters of French Romantic era, his style was always marked by a cool classicism and precision of line, in contrast to the freer handling of paint by his contemporary Delacroix. 9.
Josquin is considered one of the leading composers in the High Renaissance, and not just in the Franco-Flemish school. Almost all his works are vocal, mostly sacred. He is credited with breaking away from the tradition of long melismatic lines, writing instead in short imitative phrases that are closely expressive of the text. [This portrait of a musician by Leonardo da Vinci has not definitely been identified as Josquin, although both were in Milan at the same time.] 2.
Kourakina (née Golovina) became the most prolific Russian composer in the era of Catherine the Great. A singer and harpist herself, she wrote mainly songs for salon performance, but these were published and distributed widely. After her husband quarreled with Tsar Paul I in 1815, she moved to Paris, where she hosted a salon of her own. 5.
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Lalo supported his composing by a career as a violinist and chamber musician. His Symphonie Espagnole (1875), a violin concerto in all but name, remains his most celebrated work, although you still hear individual numbers from his 1888 opera Le Roi d'Ys. 9.
Lamartine achieved instant fame as a poet with his Poetic Meditations of 1820, a collection of lyric verse in a personal vein; his fame quickly spread to America and abroad. First elected a Deputy in 1833, he was an active Republican, becoming Foreign Minister in 1848 and delivering a celebrated speech in defense of the tricolor flag. 7.
Born and trained in Paris, Laurencin left it only during WW1, since she had lost citizenship by marrying a German husband. She was associated with Cubist circles before the war, but developed her distinctive stlye after her return: mainly compositions of wraithlike women in harmonious colors. 11.
Born into a prominent New York Jewish family, Emma was privately educated and became fluent in several languages, publishing translationd of Goethe, Heine, and others. She is best known for her poem The New Colossus, published in 1883 to raise money for completion of the Statue of Liberty, a cause dear to her because of her volunteer work providing aid to Jewish refugees. 1.
One of the geniuses behind Versailles, his Bassin de Apollon fountain shows Apollo (as Louis XIV) drawing the chariot of the Sun out of the waters. 4.
President of the Royal Academy, and the first painter to be given a peerage, he is one of the dominant figures in Victorian art. He is best known for his colorful and dynamic paintings of Greek mythology. 7.
Le Nôtre worked with Louis Le Vau at Vaux-le-Vicomte and was engaged by Louis XIV to achieve similar marvels of garden design on an even larger scale at Versailles. A pioneer in the field, his work was emulated at other great houses around Europe. 4.
With Michelangelo and Raphael, one of the triumvirate of artistic geniuses that crown the High Renaissance. He trained in Florence with the painter Andrea Verrocchio before moving to the court of Ludovico Sforza in Milan. He spent the last years of his life at the court of François I in France. The naturalism and luminosity of his painting, and his effects of sfumato (or modeling as if by smoke), were widely influential. It is his notebooks, however, that are the best testament to the range of his genius, containing remarkable observations of the natural world, and mechanical inventions centuries before their time. 1.
Leutze was born in Germany, came to America with his family at age 9, and began his career here. But he returned to Düsseldorf from 1841 to 1859, and it was there that he painted his iconic Washington Crossing the Delaware, modeled in part by other American painters who had come over to study with him. 1.
As principal architect to Louis XIV, Le Vau designed major additions to the palaces of Vincennes, the Louvre, and most notable Versailles. He is also noted for the moated chateau of Vaux-le-Vicomte and the Collège des Quatre Nations, now the Institut de France, across from the Louvre. 4.
Little is known of their earlier lives, but all three worked for Philip the Bold of Burgundy, and his brother Jean, Duc de Berry, for whom they produced the Très riches heures. [I have no reason to suppose that these are self-portraits, but we have no other!] 2.
Lully became master of music to Louis XIV, writing music in all genres, but most especially operas and ballets. His operas include Alceste (1675), Atys (1676), Persée (1682), and Armide (1686). For most of his career, no new music could be performed in France without his approval. 1.
Pianist and composer Edward MacDowell studied at the Paris Conservatoire 1876–79, but went from there to Frankfurt and remained in Germany for many years, teaching, composing, and performing. His straightforward lyrical style found favor with American audiences at the time, but now he is best remembered for the MacDowell Colony set up by his widow (also a pianist and his former student) on their property in New Hampshire to support artist residencies. 10.
Manet is arguably the greatest French painter in the third quarter of the 19th century. Though primarily a realist, he was influenced by older artists such as Titian and Velasquez. He was admired by the young Impressionists, became friends with Monet, and produced a number of works in their style, but he never exhibited with them, preferring to retain his own status in the official Salons. 7, 9.
Man Ray was born Emmanuel Radinsky, but treated his abbreviated pseudonym as a single entity. He began as a painter, then fell into the circle of Marcel Duchamp in New York and began experimenting in every possible medium, whether old or invented, such as his radical experiments with photography and film. He moved to Paris in 1921 and (with a decade's break for WW2) remained there the rest of his life, a major influence in the fields of Dada, Surrealism, and the avant-garde in general. 10.
Matisse and Picasso stand as the giant pillars of French art in the first half of the 20th century. Matisse was the slower starter and the less versatile, but he stands alone for the richness of his color and the sensuality of his forms, whether in painting or in sculpture. Suffering from crippling arthritis at the end of his life, he produced a completely new oeuvre in colored-paper collage. 9.
Based in Bruges, and probably a pupil of Rogier van der Weyden, he developed a sweeter more balanced version of his style which brought him great success. Also spelled "Memlinc." 2.
Although born and trained in Germany, Meyerbeer began his prolific opera career in Italy, falling under the spell of the serious operas of Rossini. He moved to Paris in 1826 and began a series of operas that essentially defined the notion of Grand Opera, among them Robert le Diable (1831), Les Huguenots (1836), Le Prophète (1849), and L'Africaine (1865). 8.
A member of Les Six (with Satie, Poulenc, and others), Milhaud was a prolific composer in all media, noted for his early use of jazz and his experiments in polytonality and unusual instrumental combinations. 11.
Mique was a relatively conventional architect in the neo-classical style, but he is best remembered for the rustic hameau he created for Marie Antoinette in the grounds of Versailles. Unfortunately his devotion to the Queen led to his execution in the last days of the Reign of Terror. 4.
Born in Lancashire, Moran emigrated with his family to Maryland in 1844. After working as apprentice to a painter in Philadelphia, he went to England to study at the Royal Academy, then returned to America, where he developed a successful career as a marine painter, working in New York and for a while in Paris. 1.
A child prodigy as both performer and composer, Mozart produced an extraordinary body of work in all genres over a relatively short life. He wrote the greatest of his many operas after moving to Vienna: three collaborations with Lorenzo da Ponte—The Marriage of Figaro (1786), Don Giovanni (1787), and Così fan tutte (1790)—framed by two German Singspiels: The Abduction from the Seraglio (1782) and The Magic Flute (1791). 5, 9.
After studying at Clifton College and Oxford, Newbolt became a lawyer and practised as a barrister until 1899. He also worked for the government, producing the influential Newbolt Report on the teaching of English in 1921. He was knighted in 1915. He is best known, however, as the author of the once-popular patriotic poems "Vitai Lampada" and "Drake's Drum." 3.
Polish by birth, but born in Russia, Nijinska joined the Ballets Russes and went with them to Paris. After assisting her one-year-older brother Vaclav Nijinsky in L'Après-midi d'un faune and The Rite of Spring, she began to concentrate on choreography of her own. Her most famous work is probably Les Noces (1923), to music by Stravinsky. In later years, she was a formidable teacher. 11.
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Writing both sacred and secular vocal music, he was one of the leading musicians of the late 15th century. 2.
The son of a cantor, Offenbach took the name of the German town in which he was born. After studying at the Paris Conservatoire, he began to write operettas, composing over 90 in the course of a long and wildly successful career. He is also known for his unfinished grand opera The Tales of Hoffmann. 8.
Although a founding member of the Royal Academy in 1768, portraitist and history painter Penny is now little known, except perhaps for his Death of General Wolfe (1763), which preceded Benjamin West's iconic version by several years. 6.
The Lyon-born Perrot began his career as the dancing partner of Marie Taglioni. When she broke the partnership, fearing he might outshine her, he turned his attentions to Carlotta Grisi, and (with the older Jean Coralli) created the 1841 ballet Giselle around her. He went on to create Pas de Quatre in 1845, bringing Taglioni, Grisi, and two other ballerinas together. He ended his career as ballet master in Saint Petersburg. 8.
Persico is best known as the leading collaborator on the sculpture groups of Venus and Adonis and Diana and Actaeon at the Palace of Caserta. The image is obviously by Persico, not of him! 4.
After a career as a dancer in France and Spain, Petipa accepted a position with the Imperial Theatre in St. Petersburg, and remained in Russia the rest of his life. His work as the choreographer of The Sleeping Beauty, The Nutcracker, and the 1895 revival of Swan Lake made him one of the most influential choreographers of all time. 8.
Specializing in military scenes, mostly well in the past, Philippoteux was noted for his large-scale canvases containing numerous figures, including Napoleon's defeat at Waterloo and Lamartine's defense of the French flag. With his son Paul, he painted the huge diorama of the Battle of Gettysburg. 7.
Among the leading portraitists in the first decades of the 19th century, Phillips painted artistic figures such as Blake, Byron, and Dibdin, and scientific ones such as Banks, Davy, and Faraday, in addition to the usual complement of politicians and aristocrats. 7.
Picasso's invention of Cubism around 1910 (with Georges Braque) made him arguably the most important figure in 20th-century art. However, his entire career from precocious youth to energetic old age was distinguished by rapid changes of style, constant experimentation with new media, and a gift for finding the exact image to capture an historical moment, as in his Guernica of 1937. 10.
After training with his father (also a sculptor) Pilon began working in an Italian-influenced style. Some of his best works are funerary sculptures, including several monuments in the Abbey of Saint Denis, commissioned by Cathérine des Médicis, his principal benefactor. 1.
Born near Venice, Christine moved to Paris as a child, when her father became astrologer to the king. She married a court official, then had to support herself by her writing after he died. She wrote poetry and prose in most genres, and is credited as being the first female professional writer of modern times. 2.
Poe was known for his poetry and especially for his short stories which developed the American Gothic tradition of the macabre and virtually invented the literary mystery. He was also the American author of his time most in tune with European practice, especially in France, where he was very popular. He was, however, continually wrestling with drug addiction, and died at the age of 40. 7.
Pope is considered the leading English poet of the Augustan era, "known for his satirical and discursive poetry including The Rape of the Lock, The Dunciad, and An Essay on Criticism, and for his translations of Homer" [Wikipedia]. He suffered all his life from a form of tuberculosis that twisted his spine, stunted his growth, and affected his eyesight. 4.
One of the preeminent French painters of his century, and its outstanding classicist, his work includes historical, religious, and mythological subjects, some focusing on the figures in the manner of Raphael, other set in classical landscapes similar to those of Claude Lorrain. 4.
Though a polyglot and educated in theology as well as music, he began his career as a church organist and then as court musician to the Duke of Brunswick. The Duke's successor, however, encouraged him to produce religious music in what was now the Lutheran tradition. His published collections of dance music, sacred music, and theoretical writings tell us much of what we know of the music of his time. 1.
Born in Canada, Prendergast was a member of the group of artists aound Robert Henri, but developed a lighter, more colorful style than the others, influenced particularly by developments in France. At first, he painted mainly in watercolor, but later moved to oil painting and prints. 10.
After training with Giuliano Romano in his native Bologna, Primaticcio worked for a while at the Palazzo del Tè in Mantua, before joining Rosso Fiorentino at Fontainebleau in 1532. After Rosso's death in 1540, he took charge of all Fontainebleau projects, which included paintings in his own Mannerist style and various sculptural and architectural projects, such as Cathérine de Médicis' monument at Saint Denis. 1.
While in exile because of verses critical of the Tsar he wrote his most celebrated play Boris Godunov. His masterpiece is the novel in verse Eugene Onegin, serialized between 1825 and 1832. While his range is extraordinary and an inspiration to later Russian composers, he is celebrated as much for restoring the Russian language (as opposed to French) as the vehicle for artistic expression. 5.
Though often grouped with Debussy as a musical Impressionist, Ravel was very much his own man. As a composer with a strong sense of tradition, he often wrote in older dance forms. As a virtuoso pianist, he wrote piano music of transcendent difficulty that extended the range of piano techniques. And as a master orchestrator, he enriched 20th-century music with some of its most vibrant colors. 9.
A winner of the Prix de Rome, Regnault produced works in a romanticized acadmic style, together with Orientalist subjects such as his Salomé in the Met and Summary Execution at the Orsay (both 1870). He was killed fighting in the Franco-Prussian War. 9.
One of the leading directors of the nouvelle vague, Resnais made his name with the short film Night and Fog (1956), about Nazi extermination camps, and the features Hisorshima, mon amour (1959) and Last year at Marienbad (1961). Many of his films were collaborations with experimental authors like Alain Robbe-Grillet and Marguerite Duras, who had never before worked in cinema. 11.
Robbe-Grillet was one of the leading practitioners of the nouveau roman in which obsessive repetition of apparently minor detail took over from conventional character development and narrative. His screenpay for Resnais' Last Year at Marienbad is an unusually close adaptation of his style to the media of sight and sound. 11.
Born in Vermont, Robinson moved to Paris in 1876 to study at the École des Beaux-Arts, meeting with some success. He returned to France in 1884, and settled in the house next door to Claude Monet, remaining there for a decade. Although Robinson's style is generally tamer, the two were apparently close enough friends to consult on a regular basis. 10.
A neoclassical painter based in Toulouse, Roques was an early teacher of Ingres. Aside from a number of religious paintings, he is most interesting for painting a Death of Marat in the same year as David's but incorporating his own variations. 6.
Rossini's fame rests on his 39 operas, especially the comedies, all written while he was still in his thirties. In 1829, fter writing Guillaume Tell, one of the foundation stones of French grand opéra, he essentially retired, settling in Paris, and writing only occasional pieces plus his masterpieces of sacred music, the Staba Mater of 1842 and Petite Messe solennelle of 1864. 8.
"The Redhead from Florence" is the nickname of Giovanni Battista di Jacopo, an Italian Mannerist painter who executed the celebrated lute-playing cherub in the Uffizi, and a lot of religious work. He was brought to Fontainebleau in 1530 by François I, where he executed the murals of the grand Gallery, along with Francesco Primaticcio, thus essentially founding the "First School of Fontainebleau." 1.
A leading figure in Enlightenment thought, he advocated the values of natural simplicity in his later work, heralding the transition to the sensibility and subjectivity of the Romantics. His work as a composer culminated in the opea Le devin du village ("The Village Soothsayer") in 1752, after which he stopped working in the theatre. 4.
One of the giants of baroque art, Rubens developed the style of Titian into a powerful rhetoric applied equally to sacred and profane subjects, and exerted enormous influence in Spain, England, and France as well as in his native Flanders, continued in the work of his many pupils. His position at so many courts also made him invaluable as a diplomat. 1.
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Saïd was born in Jeusalem, but had American citizenship through his father, who had served in the US Army. He studied at Princeton and Harvard and later became a professor at Columbia. His controversial 1978 book Orientalism became a required text in Post-Colonial Studies, a field that Saïd founded. He was a lifelong activist, not merely for Palestinian causes but for better understanding between peoples, for example by founding (with Daniel Barenboim) the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra, composed of young Israeli, Palestinian, and Arab musicians. 9.
A pianist himself, Saint-Saëns wrote five concertos that remain in the repertoire. His most famous works are probably his Organ Symphony and Carnival of the Animals (both 1886), plus the opera Samson and Delila(1877). His Phaeton of 1873 tells the story as a 10-minute symphonic poem. 9.
Sargent was born in Florence, the son of wealthy cultured parents, and much of his career was spent in Europe, although his rising fame as the preeminent society portraitist of his day also took him back to America. He is said to have hated portraiture, though, and diversified into landscapes and watercolors for his own satisfaction. 10.
A leading sculptor of the Harlem Renaissance, Savage was one of only two African Americans commissioned to create works for the 1939 New York World's Fair. The result, Lift Every Voice and Sing, showing a group of Black singers standing like the strings of a harp, was widely reproduced. 10.
Scott's historical novels, all set in his native Scotland, spoke to the Romantic spirit and were immensely popular throughout Europe, inspiring many adaptations such as Donizetti's Lucia di Lammermoor. 7.
With almost 40 plays, 154 sonnets, and many longer poems, Shakespeare dominates English literature of his time, and world literature for ever after. To attempt a thumbnail biography would be both unnecessary and impossible. 3.
Signac met Georges Seurat when he was 21, and devoted the rest of his career to developing his pointillist style. He was the first of many turn-of-the-century painters to explore the visual potential of the South of France. By temperament a philanthropist and social reformer, he used his independent means to help many of his contemporay artists, being the first for example to buy the work of Matisse. 9.
Sluter was born in Haarlem, but joined the court of Philip the Bold of Burgundy in 1380 and remained there all his life. His most important works were monuments for the Duke: the gateway of the Chartreuse de Champmol outside Dijon, the Well of Moses in the cloister, and the mourning figures around the Duke's tomb. 2.
Gertrude Stein comes into this course as the American expatriate whose salon in Paris hosted the likes of Hemingway, Fitzgerald, Pound, Matisse, and especially Picasso. But of course she was a Modernist poet in her own right, writing in a terse enigmatic style that is often quoted. 10.
Starting as an enfant terrible in Paris with the ballets he wrote for Serge Diaghilev, he gradually pared back his resources, developing a neo-classical style between about 1930 and 1955, but eventually turning his back on tonality. 1, 8, 10.
Taglioni was an Italian dancer who performed at the Paris Opéra before taking up an appointment as balletmaster with the Royal Swedish Ballet. There, he married a Swedish singer who bore him two children, Marie and Paul, both of whom became successful dancers. His name is best remembered in conjunction with Marie, who became the first superstar ballerina under his training and management, and for whom he choreographed the first defining Romantic ballet, La sylphide, in 1832. 8.
Tchaikovsky was the first Russian composer to gain an international reputation, in part because his Russian voice was allied to a thorough training in Western parctice. His symphonies, tone-poems, and ballets have become staples of their repertoire, but his dozen operas are less well-known, except for Eugene Onegin (1879) and The Queen of Spades (1890), both based on texts by Pushkin. 5.
Theobald was Count of Champagne from birth and King of Navarre from 1234. He initiated the Barons' Crusade, was famous as a trouvère, and was the first Frenchman to rule Navarre. [Wikipedia] 2.
Born in Kansas City, Thomson studied at Harvard, then moved to Paris for 15 years, staying on after his study with Nadia Boulanger. He sat at the feet of Gertrude Stein, who wrote the libretti for his first two operas, Four Saints in Thress Acts (1928) and The Mother of Us All (1947), the latter written after his return to America. Although associating with figures of the avant garde like Stein, his musical style was always approachable, and he valued market success over aesthetic pretensions. 10.
Working for Cahiers du Cinéma in the 1950s, he developed the auteur theory that elevates the role of a director like Alfred Hitchcock to a creative importance equivalent to the author of a novel. He became such a director himself in films that defined the nouvelle vague, such as the semi-autobiographical 400 Blows (1959), Shoot the Piano-Player (1960), and Jules and Jim (1962). He also wrote the story for Jean-Luc Godard's Breathless (1960). 11.
Trumbull fought in the American War of Independence, and founded his career on depictions of battles and other key historical events. He spent several years in London working with Benjamin West, and was even imprisoned there for several months for his part in the Revolution. 6.
Rivaled only by Constable, Turner was the dominant British landscape painter of the first half of the 19th century, he started his career with topographical views intended for engraving, and ended with works whose subjects were dissolved in veils of paint and light. His Fighting Temeraire (1838) was recently voted the Greatest British Picture in a BBC poll. 3.
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A radical in thought and politics, he wrote two outspoken Restoration plays, The Relapse and The Provoked Wife, that were shocking in their explicitness and defence of women's rights. His later career as an architect was equally radical, creating the short-lived style of English Baroque in buildings such as Blenheim Palace and Castle Howard. He was imprisoned as a spy in France, 1688–92. 4.
The major figure of the second half of the 15th century in the Netherlands, he is known for his psychological observation and the richness of his backgrounds, as in the Portinari Altarpiece which introduced his style to Florence. [Identificaton of this as a self-portrait is conjectural.] 2.
The most celebrated and influential northern painter in the earlier 15th century, responsible for developing a style of oil painting capable of magnificent detail and effects of light. His major work, the altarpiece in Ghent Cathedral, is recorded to have been begun by his perhaps even greater brother Hubert. He was a renowned portraitist, including the enigmatic Arnolfini Marriage in London, and the supposed self-portrait seen here. 2.
A contemporary and friend of Géricault and Delacroix, he specialized in literary, exotic, and increasingly contemporary subjects, known for their free handling and striking color. 6.
Specializing in portraiture, Vigée-Lebrun had charm and wit to match her talent, which won her many influential patrons, most notably Queen Marie Antoinette. She fled France at the Revolution and lived in London, Italy, Vienna, and St Petersburg, where she was part of the court of Catherine the Great. Her memoirs are a vital testament of her times and her own remarkable strengths as a woman. 5.
Voltaire was "famous for his wit, his criticism of the Church, and his advocacy of freedom of speech, freedom of religion, and separation of church and state" (Wikipedia). Among his prolific output in almost every literary form, he is now best known for his satirical novel Candide (1758), a critique of the Optimism of Leibniz. 5.
François Louis Joseph Watteau was the great nephew of the rococo master Jean-Antoine Watteau. Like his father (also a painter), he was known as "Watteau of Lille." He painted mainly historical and military subjects. 6.
Although he also wrote instrumental music, Weber's work to establish a German national opera is crucial, reaching its full flowering with Der Freischütz in 1821. 8.
Born in Bialystok in Russian Poland, Weber came to Brooklyn with his Orthodox Jewish parents in 1891. He studied in New York and then in Paris, where he came into contact with the early Cubists. Returning to American in 1909, he was one of the first to paint in a Cubist style, a manner in which he reached his peak in the teens of the century. Later, he turned to specifically Jewish themes treated in a less confrontational style. 10.
Weill became famous in Berlin for his collaborations with Bertolt Brecht, among them The Threepenny Opera (1928, a satirical adaptation of John Gay's The Beggar's Opera,) and the political opera The Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny (1930). Fleeing Nazi Germany, he eventually settled in New York in 1935, finding new fame on Broadway, but also writing more operatic fare such as Street Scene (1946, with Langston Hughes). 9.
Although he set up as a portraitist, it was as the painter of historical and mythological subjects that he made his name. A founding member of the Royal Academy in 1768, he became its president in 1792. His London studio became a Mecca for American artists studying abroad. 6.
Very little is known of Rogier's life, except that he was highly successful in his time, with his works exported to Italy and Spain, and commissioned by princes both in the Netherlands and abroad. His extraordinary detail and emotionally intense compositions now place him firmly with Jan van Eyck and Robert Campin in the trinity of early Netherlandish masters. The image is a detail from his Saint Luke Drawing the Virgin, assumed to be a self-portrait. 2.
William is thought to have been born in Sens, and was certainly involved in the building of the cathedral there. He was invited to England in 1174 to rebuild the east end of Canterbury Cathedral, which thus became the first example of Gothic architecture in England. He was injured by a fall from the scaffolding in 1177, and may have died in Canterbury. 2.
With the joint publication of the Lyrical Ballads with Coleridge in 1798, Wordsworth co-founded the English Romantic movement, and continued to dominate it for decades with poetry of his native Lake District and his doctrine of capturing experience direct from Nature for later use as "emotion recollected in tranquility." 3.
Though English, Worth is considered the grandfather of French haute couture. Working in high-end retail shops in London and Paris, he gained attenttion by sewing his own dresses for clients. Soon after opening his own establishment in Paris in 1858, his work caught the eye of Empress Eugénie, launching his long career as the preeminent arbiter of French fashion, and the proprietor of the House of Worth, which established many of the practices that are taken for granted in the fashion world of today. 11.