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Sommer, William

(Encyclopedia)Sommer, William, 1867–1949, American painter and lithographer, b. Detroit. He was apprenticed as a lithographer and studied drawing with Julius Melchers in Detroit and drawing and painting in Munich...

pokeweed

(Encyclopedia)pokeweed or pokeberry, tall, bushy perennial herb (Phytolacca americana) native to North America but cultivated and naturalized in Europe. The long clusters of white flowers are followed by purplish b...

ruby

(Encyclopedia)ruby, precious stone, the transparent red variety of corundum, found chiefly in Myanmar, Thailand, and Sri Lanka and classified among the most valuable of gems. The Myanmarese stones are blood red, th...

Bakst, Lev Nikolayevich

(Encyclopedia)Bakst, Lev Nikolayevich lyĕf nyĭkəlīˈəvyĭch bäkst [key], 1868–1924, Russian scene designer and painter. His original, imaginative style and brilliant color exerted a wide influence on costum...

Oudry, Jean Baptiste

(Encyclopedia)Oudry, Jean Baptiste zhäN bätēstˈ o͞odrēˈ [key], 1686–1755, French animal painter. A pupil of Largillière, he became court painter to Louis XV, recording the king's hunts in his paintings an...

Villon, Jacques

(Encyclopedia)Villon, Jacques, 1875–1963, French painter, brother of Marcel Duchamp and Raymond Duchamp-Villon. Villon became an exponent of cubism in 1911 and is best known for his refinement of the cubist style...

holography

(Encyclopedia)holography hŏlŏgˈrəfē, hō– [key], method of reproducing a three-dimensional image of an object by means of light wave patterns recorded on a photographic plate or film. Holography is sometimes...

leaf

(Encyclopedia)CE5 Microscopic cross section of the leaf blade CE5 Types of leaves leaf, chief food-manufacturing organ of a plant, a lateral outgrowth of the growing point of stem. The typical leaf consist...

Klee, Paul

(Encyclopedia)Klee, Paul poul klā [key], 1879–1940, Swiss painter, graphic artist, and art theorist, b. near Bern. Klee's enormous production (more than 10,000 paintings, drawings, and etchings) is unique in tha...

Whistler, James Abbott McNeill

(Encyclopedia)Whistler, James Abbott McNeill, 1834–1903, American painter, etcher, wit, and eccentric, b. Lowell, Mass. Whistler was dismissed from West Point for insufficient knowledge of chemistry and from the ...