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Montherlant, Henri de

(Encyclopedia)Montherlant, Henri de äNrēˈ də môNtĕrläNˈ [key], 1896–1972, French writer. His novels are decadent and egotistical and glorify force and masculinity. Montherlant fought in World War I and wa...

Houdon, Jean-Antoine

(Encyclopedia)Houdon, Jean-Antoine zhäN-äNtwänˈ o͞odôNˈ [key], 1741–1828, French neoclassical sculptor. He studied with Michel Ange Slodtz, Lemoyne, and Pigalle, took the Prix de Rome at the age of 20, and...

Raffarin, Jean-Pierre

(Encyclopedia)Raffarin, Jean-Pierre zhäN-pyĕr räfärăNˈ [key], 1948–, French politician. From a political family, he began his career in business and served as a spokesman for a labor minister in the late 19...

Godard, Jean-Luc

(Encyclopedia)Godard, Jean-Luc zhäN-lük gôdärˈ [key], 1930–, French film director and scriptwriter, b. Paris. He wrote criticism for a number of Parisian cinema journals in the early 1950s before embarking o...

Gobelins, Manufacture nationale des

(Encyclopedia)Gobelins, Manufacture nationale des mänüfäktürˈ näsēônälˈ dā gôblăNˈ [key], state-controlled tapestry manufactory in Paris. It was founded as a dye works in the mid-15th cent. by Jean Go...

Soubise, Benjamin de Rohan, seigneur de

(Encyclopedia)Soubise, Benjamin de Rohan, seigneur de bäNzhämăNˈ də rōäNˈ sānyûrˈ də so͞obēzˈ [key], 1583–1642, French Protestant general. He fought under Maurice of Nassau in the Netherlands and s...

Champlain, Samuel de

(Encyclopedia)Champlain, Samuel de shămplānˈ, Fr. sämüĕlˈ də shäNplăNˈ [key], 1567–1635, French explorer, the chief founder of New France. After serving in France under Henry of Navarre (King Henry IV)...

Diaz de la Peña, Narciso Virgilio

(Encyclopedia)Diaz de la Peña, Narciso Virgilio dyäs də lä pānyäˈ [key], 1808–76, French landscape and figure painter of the Barbizon school, b. Bordeaux, of Spanish parents. Mainly self-taught, he was inf...

De la Beche, Sir Henry Thomas

(Encyclopedia)De la Beche, Sir Henry Thomas də lä bāsh, dĕləbĕshˈ [key], 1796–1855, English geologist. As a result of his private undertaking to prepare a geological map of England, the British government ...

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