Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Poinsett, Joel Roberts

(Encyclopedia)Poinsett, Joel Roberts poinˈsĕt [key], 1779–1851, American diplomat and politician, b. Charleston, S.C. In 1810 he was sent as a special commissioner to South America to investigate political cond...

Roosebeke, battle of

(Encyclopedia)Roosebeke, battle of rōˈzəbāˌkə [key], 1382, in the modern-day village of Westrozebeke, Staden commune, West Flanders prov., W Belgium. The French under Olivier de Clisson defeated Flemish weave...

Frank, Anne

(Encyclopedia)Frank, Anne, 1929–45, German diarist, b. Frankfurt as Anneliese Marie Frank. In order to escape Nazi persecution, her family emigrated (1933) to Amsterdam, where her father Otto became a business ow...

Eaton, John Henry

(Encyclopedia)Eaton, John Henry, 1790–1856, U.S. Senator (1818–29) and Secretary of War (1829–31), b. Halifax co., N.C. After being admitted to the bar, he practiced in Franklin, Tenn., and married Myra Lewis...

Fabritius, Carel

(Encyclopedia)Fabritius, Carel bärˈənt [key], 1624–73, worked in a similar though less accomplished manner, influenced by Maes as well as Rembrandt. Barent's portrait of the Van der Helm family (1655) is in th...

fauvism

(Encyclopedia)fauvism fōˈvĭzəm [key] [Fr. fauve=wild beast], name derisively hurled at and cheerfully adopted by a group of French painters, including Matisse, Rouault, Derain, Vlaminck, Friesz, Marquet, van Do...

functionalism, in art and architecture

(Encyclopedia)functionalism, in art and architecture, an aesthetic doctrine developed in the early 20th cent. out of Louis Henry Sullivan's aphorism that form ever follows function. Functionalist architects and art...

Justus of Ghent

(Encyclopedia)Justus of Ghent, fl. c.1460–c.1480, Flemish religious and portrait painter, now generally identified with Joos van Wassenhove; also known as Jodocus or Joos of Ghent. His simple, quiet style provide...

Monk, Thelonius

(Encyclopedia)Monk, Thelonius (Thelonius Sphere Monk), 1917–82, American jazz pianist, composer, and arranger, b. Rocky Mount, N.C. Monk is considered one of the most important, and eccentric, figures in modern j...

Mott, Sir Nevill

(Encyclopedia)Mott, Sir Nevill, 1905–96, British physicist. A professor at the Univ. of Bristol (1933–54) and the Univ. of Cambridge (1954–71), Mott won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1977 for a lifetime of re...