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Walewska, Countess Maria

(Encyclopedia)Walewska, Countess Maria märēˈä välĕfˈskä [key], 1789–1817, Polish noblewoman. She became (1807) the mistress of Emperor Napoleon I and bore (1810) him a son, Alexandre Walewski. ...

Château d'If

(Encyclopedia)Château d'If shätōˌdēfˈ [key], castle built in 1524 on the small rocky isle of If, in the Mediterranean Sea off Marseilles, SE France. Long used as a state prison, it was made famous by Alexandr...

Monte Cristo

(Encyclopedia)Monte Cristo mŏnˌtē krĭsˈtō, Ital. mônˈtā krēˈstō [key], unpopulated, rocky island, 6 sq mi (15.5 sq km), belonging to Italy, in the Tyrrhenian Sea between Corsica and the Italian coast. I...

Becquerel

(Encyclopedia)Becquerel bĕkərĕlˈ [key], family of French physicists. Antoine César Becquerel, 1788–1878, was a pioneer in electrochemical science. He was professor of physics at the Muséum d'Histoire nature...

Riboud, Marc

(Encyclopedia)Riboud, Marc, 1923–2016, French photojournalist. After fighting in the resistance during World War II, he studied engineering. In 1952 he moved to Paris, where he met Henri Cartier-Bresson, who beca...

Santos-Dumont, Alberto

(Encyclopedia)Santos-Dumont, Alberto älbĕrˈto͝o sänˈto͝ozh-dümôNˈ [key], 1873–1932, Brazilian aeronaut. The son of a wealthy coffee grower, he was a flamboyant bon vivant and lived in France from 1891 t...

realism, in art

(Encyclopedia)realism, in art, the movement of the mid-19th cent. formed in reaction against the severely academic production of the French school. Realist painters sought to portray what they saw without idealizin...

Delaunay, Robert

(Encyclopedia)Delaunay, Robert rōbĕrˈ dəlōnāˈ [key], 1885–1941, French painter; husband of Sonia Delaunay-Terk. By 1909, Delaunay had progressed from a neoimpressionist phase to cubism, applying cubist pri...

Sèvres

(Encyclopedia)Sèvres sĕvˈrə [key], town (1990 pop. 22,057), Hauts-de-Seine dept., N central France, on the Seine River; a residential suburb SW of Paris. The famous Sèvres ware porcelain is made in the town, w...

Liberty, Statue of

(Encyclopedia)Liberty, Statue of, statue on Liberty Island in Upper New York Bay, commanding the entrance to New York City. Liberty Island, c.10 acres (4 hectares), formerly Bedloe's Island (renamed in 1956), was t...