13.03.1825–17.08.1903
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Artists
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Found: 1775
15.07.1718–05.07.1793
Alexander Roslin
In 1752, at thirty-four, the Swedish portraitist Alexander Roslin came to Paris and stayed there until his death. He painted aristocrats, the French royal family and Gustav III, and in 1774–1777 travelled to Sweden and Russia, where he portrayed Catherine II. His contemporaries valued him for the silk, lace and pearls he put on canvas.01.05.1872–08.05.1960
Hugo Alfvén
As a young man Hugo Alfvén seriously considered devoting himself to painting, but he became one of Sweden's principal composers of the early twentieth century. His “Swedish Rhapsody No. 1”, written when he was thirty-one, is still among the best-known pieces of Swedish music. He directed the student choir and the orchestra of Uppsala University, and in 1954 he made the first classical stereo recordings in Sweden.01.08.1865–17.08.1947
Prince Eugen, Duke of Närke
Prince Eugen, Duke of Närke, the youngest son of King Oscar II, studied painting in Uppsala and Paris and became one of the best-known Swedish landscape painters of the turn of the twentieth century. He painted murals in Stockholm City Hall, bought the Waldemarsudde estate on Djurgården and bequeathed it to the state with his collection: it has been a museum since 1948.27.11.1974–?
Parov Stelar
Marcus Füreder of Linz began as a DJ and put out his first records as Plasma, then in 2003 founded his own label, Etage Noir Recordings. As Parov Stelar he became one of the pioneers of electro swing: the double album “Coco” (2009) was his breakthrough, and since 2005 he has performed with a live band. He studied painting and graphic design and has shown his paintings in exhibitions since 2021.30.07.1889–03.01.1972
Frans Masereel
In 1918 Frans Masereel published “25 Images of a Man’s Passion”, the first of his books of woodcuts without a single word. In Geneva, where he went during the First World War, he drew for pacifist journals; later he lived in Paris, Équihen, Avignon and Nice. He illustrated Romain Rolland’s “Jean-Christophe” and Charles de Coster’s “Thyl Ulenspiegel”.23.11.1862–14.12.1926
Théo van Rysselberghe
The Belgian painter Théo van Rysselberghe was one of the founders of the group Les XX in Brussels in 1883, and after seeing Seurat’s “La Grande Jatte” in 1886 he turned to Pointillism. He painted portraits of friends, poets and artists, and made posters and book illustrations. From 1911 he lived in Saint-Clair, in the south of France, where he died.10.04.1922–25.10.2010
Vesna Parun
Vesna Parun (1922–2010) was born on the island of Zlarin and began publishing at ten; her first book, “Dawns and Whirlwinds” (1947), irritated the socialist-realist critics. She wrote more than sixty books of poetry and prose, plays and over twenty books for children, and translated from Slovene, German, French and Bulgarian. She became the first Croatian woman to live by literature alone.15.10.1917–23.08.1994
Zoltán Fábri
Zoltán Fábri trained to be a painter but came to the theatre and then to film, where he directed his first picture in 1951. “Merry-Go-Round” brought him international recognition, and “Twenty Hours” shared the top prize at the 1965 Moscow Film Festival with “War and Peace”. Nearly all his films are based on literary works, and he wrote the screenplays himself.09.09.1899–08.07.1984
Brassaï
Gyula Halász, a Hungarian from Transylvania, came to Paris in 1924 as a painter and journalist, and became famous for his photographs of the city at night: the album “Paris by Night” appeared in 1933. Later he spent years photographing Parisian graffiti, photographed Picasso and his sculptures, and wrote books, among them “Conversations with Picasso”. His pseudonym means “from Brassó”.05.06.1932–07.09.1981
Christy Brown
Christy Brown was born in 1932 into a working-class Dublin family with severe cerebral palsy and learned to write and draw with his left foot, the only limb he could control. His autobiography “My Left Foot” (1954) made him known, and his novel “Down All the Days” (1970) was translated into 14 languages. The film of the first book came out in 1989.18.06.1831–14.10.1892
Peter Nicolai Arbo
Peter Nicolai Arbo (1831–1892) painted scenes from Norwegian history and Norse mythology: “The Wild Hunt of Odin” (1872) and two versions of “Valkyrie”, one of which was bought by the Swedish king Charles XV. He studied in Copenhagen and Düsseldorf, worked in Paris for eight years, and after returning to Norway headed an art school and led the Art Society in Christiania.11.02.1874–30.06.1953
Elsa Beskow
Elsa Beskow (born Maartman) wrote and illustrated about forty children’s books; the first, “The Tale of the Little Little Old Woman”, appeared in 1897, and real success came with “Puttes äventyr i blåbärsskogen”, “Peter in Blueberry Land” (1901). Her pages are framed with Art Nouveau plant ornament, and her flowers and trees are drawn so that the species can be recognised. She lived in Djursholm, in a villa built for the writer Viktor Rydberg.12.09.1858–12.11.1921
Fernand Khnopff
Fernand Khnopff (1858–1921) abandoned law school for painting, became a founding member of the Brussels group Les XX and built himself a house and studio with the motto “One has but oneself”. His enigmatic images of women, among them “The Caress of the Sphinx” (1896), were shown at the Vienna Secession in 1898 and later linked with Klimt.15.12.1967–?
David Černý
On the night of 28 April 1991 David Černý, then a student, painted a Soviet tank pink on Kinských Square in Prague, and it made his name. Then came “Horse” on Wenceslas Square, the babies on the Žižkov Television Tower, “Entropa” for the Czech presidency of the Council of the EU and the moving head of Kafka. Since 2023 he has had his own museum, Musoleum.23.03.1943–26.11.2001
Nils-Aslak Valkeapää
Nils-Aslak Valkeapää, the son of Sámi reindeer herders from Enontekiö, performed under the name Áillohaš. He brought joik back to the stage and the recording studio, wrote nine books of poetry in Northern Sámi and illustrated them himself. He won the Nordic Council Literature Prize in 1991 for “The Sun, My Father”. He co-founded the Sámi publishing house DAT, and in 1994 he performed a joik at the opening of the Lillehammer Olympics.28.11.1931–09.02.2019
Tomi Ungerer
Tomi Ungerer grew up in Alsace, which came under German rule in his childhood, and at school he was forbidden to speak French. From 1957 he worked in New York: children’s books for Harper & Row, the poster for “Dr. Strangelove”, anti-war and anti-racist posters. From 1976 he lived in Ireland; a museum in Strasbourg is devoted to him, to which he gave thousands of drawings and toys.22.08.1891–26.05.1973
Jacques Lipchitz
Jacques Lipchitz was born in the Lithuanian small town of Druskininkai, went to Paris to study in 1909 and became one of the first Cubist sculptors. In 1941 he fled the occupation of France, by way of Marseille, to the United States. In New York and its surroundings he made The Song of the Vowels, Birth of the Muses and other works for universities and public squares.21.01.1845–25.03.1932
Harriet Backer
Harriet Backer (1845–1932) painted mainly interiors: rooms with a lamp or a stove, where light falls on chairs and is reflected in a mirror, as well as village churches. She studied in Christiania, Munich and Paris, lived in France for ten years, and after returning to Norway ran an art school where several future well-known Norwegian painters were taught.27.04.1857–21.01.1914
Theodor Kittelsen
Theodor Kittelsen (1857–1914) worked as a watchmaker's apprentice in his teens, until a local lawyer raised money for his education. He studied in Christiania and Munich, illustrated Norwegian folktales and gave trolls a look that many Norwegians still regard as definitive. His books include “The Black Death”, about the plague, a series on Lofoten, and “Soria Moria Castle”.03.07.1778–04.05.1840
Carl Ludvig Engel
Carl Ludvig Engel, the son of a Berlin mason, lost his commissions to the Napoleonic wars, went to Tallinn, and ended his life as chief architect of the Grand Duchy of Finland. His buildings make up Senate Square in Helsinki, and after the fire in Turku he drew up a city plan with fire-prevention rules that were later applied in other towns.03.08.1888–23.10.1956
August Kubizek
August Kubizek (1888–1956) grew up in the family of a Linz upholsterer and, against his father’s will, trained as a musician: from 1908 to 1912 he studied at the Kaiser music school in Vienna. He worked as a conductor in Marburg on the Drau, and from 1920 he served in the town administration of Eferding and led the town orchestra. He is known above all for his memoir of his friendship with the young Adolf Hitler (1953).31.03.1885–05.06.1930
Jules Pascin
Jules Pascin, born Julius Mordecai Pincas in Vidin, took an anagram of his surname as a pseudonym when he began drawing for the Munich magazine Simplicissimus. In Paris he became the “Prince of Montparnasse”, and during the First World War he lived in the United States and took American citizenship. He mostly painted and drew women, in watercolour, pastel and thinned oil.11.08.1964–?