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Woodville, Richard Caton

(Encyclopedia)Woodville, Richard Caton, 1825–55, American genre painter, b. Baltimore. He turned from medical studies to painting and in 1845 studied in Düsseldorf. He spent most of his brief working life in Eur...

Westport

(Encyclopedia)Westport, residential town (1990 pop. 24,407), Fairfield co., SW Conn., on Long Island Sound at the mouth of the Saugatuck River; settled 1645–50, inc. 1835. It serves as a popular residence for New...

Carstens, Asmus Jacob

(Encyclopedia)Carstens, Asmus Jacob äsˈmo͝os yäˈkôp kärˈstəns [key], 1754–98, German historical painter and engraver, b. Schleswig. He studied in Copenhagen and in Italy. He was influenced by the work of...

Zuccarelli, Francesco

(Encyclopedia)Zuccarelli, Francesco fränchĕsˈkō tso͞ok-kärĕlˈlē [key], 1702–88, Florentine landscape painter and decorator. He twice visited London, where he decorated the Opera House and was well known ...

Biwa

(Encyclopedia)Biwa bēˈwä [key], lake, c.40 mi (60 km) long and from 2 to 12 mi (3.2–19 km) wide, Shiga prefecture, S Honshu, Japan. The lake, shaped like the biwa, a musical instrument, is the largest in Japan...

melodrama

(Encyclopedia)melodrama [Gr.,=song-drama], originally a spoken text with musical background, as in Greek drama. The form was popular in the 18th cent., when its composers included Georg Benda, J. J. Rousseau, and W...

iceboating

(Encyclopedia)iceboating, sport of sailing a specially prepared boat equipped with runners over ice. The first iceboats were probably sailed by the Dutch during the 18th cent., although the Finns and Sami (Lapps) m...

dice, in games and gambling

(Encyclopedia)dice [plural of die], small cubes used in games. They are usually made of ivory, bone, wood, plastic, or similar materials. The six sides are numbered by dots from 1 to 6, so placed that the sum of th...

Aznar López, José María

(Encyclopedia)Aznar López, José María hōzāˈ märēˈə äsˈnär lōˈpās [key], 1953–, Spanish politician, prime minister of Spain (1996–2004), b. Madrid. Originally a lawyer and tax inspector, he joine...

Hrabal, Bohumil

(Encyclopedia)Hrabal, Bohumil, 1914–97, one of the most important and popular Czech writers of the 20th cent., b. Brünn, Austria-Hungary (now Brno, Czech Republic). After working at a number of jobs, he became a...