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Béjart, Maurice

(Encyclopedia)Béjart, Maurice môrēsˈ bāzhärˈ [key], 1927–2007, French ballet dancer and opera director, b. Marseilles as Maurice Jean Berger. After studying in Marseilles, Paris, and London, he danced and ...

Guise

(Encyclopedia)Guise gēz, gwēz [key], influential ducal family of France. Henri's brother Louis de Lorraine, Cardinal de Guise, 1555–88, was killed at the same time as Henri. After their deaths the leadersh...

Ozenfant, Amédée

(Encyclopedia)Ozenfant, Amédée ämādāˈ ōzäNfäNˈ [key], 1886–1966, French art theorist and painter. He criticized the cubists after 1912 for creating a merely decorative art form. Ozenfant advocated a dis...

Regnard, Jean François

(Encyclopedia)Regnard, Jean François zhäN fräNswäˈ rənyärˈ [key], 1655–1709, French comic dramatist. He traveled widely in Europe; captured by Barbary pirates, he was held in slavery (1678–79) until ran...

Necker, Jacques

(Encyclopedia)Necker, Jacques zhäk nĕkĕrˈ [key], 1732–1804, French financier and statesman, b. Geneva, Switzerland. In 1750 he went to Paris and entered banking. He rose rapidly to importance, established a b...

French architecture

(Encyclopedia)French architecture, structures created in the area of Europe that is now France. Engineers and architects, including François Hennebique, Auguste Perret, and Tony Garnier, pioneered the use of rei...

Berengar II

(Encyclopedia)Berengar II bĕrˈĭng-gər [key], d. 966, marquis of Ivrea. In 950 he made himself and his son joint kings of Italy, but his great unpopularity and his attempt to force Adelaide, his predecessor's wi...

Messiaen, Olivier

(Encyclopedia)Messiaen, Olivier ôlēvyāˈ mĕsyäNˈ [key], 1908–92, French composer and organist, b. Avignon. Messiaen was a pupil of Paul Dukas at the Paris Conservatory. He became organist of La Trinité, Pa...

de Vries, Hugo

(Encyclopedia)de Vries, Hugo hüˈgō də vrēs [key], 1848–1935, Dutch botanist. He opened a new approach to the study of evolution by using the experimental method to investigate the processes of evolution. His...

De Wint, Peter

(Encyclopedia)De Wint, Peter, 1784–1849, English landscape painter. He was a leading watercolorist. Most of De Wint's landscapes are distinctly English in subject and treatment, Lincolnshire scenes being favorite...