Otto Dix (1891 - 1969)

Painter,  Printmaker.  A leader of Germany’s “New Objectivity” movement,  famed for his unflinching portrayals of World War I and the decadence of 1920s  Weimar society.  Wilhelm Heinrich Otto Dix was born in Untermhaus,  Germany.  He studied at Dresden’s School of Decorative art (1909 to 1914) while privately absorbing influences from Post-Impressionism and early Expressionism.  At […]

Frederick Harris Goff (1858 - 1923)

Lawyer and Cleveland civic leader. Born in Blackbury, Illinois to Frederick C. and Catherine Brown Goff. Frederick received a bachelor degree of philosophy in 1881. He was admitted to the Ohio bar in 1884. Frederick was widely known for a civil leader. Frederick worked primarily in corporate law, specializing in reorganization and financial problems. During […]

Christian Dior (1905 - 1957)

Fashion Designer.  He was the founder of Christian Dior, one of the world’s most renowned fashion houses.  One of five children of a successful fertilizer manufacturer, he took an interest in art at an early age and would sell his fashion sketches outside the family home in Paris, France.  In 1928 he established a small […]

Rayner Goddard (1877 - 1971)

Lord Chief Justice Goddard was a notorious British judge of the early to mid 20th century and is often referred to as the “hanging judge.” Most famously Lord Goddard (who was the highest ranking British judge at the time) is remembered for the Derek Bentley trial in which Goddard has since been criticised for his […]

Jef Dillen (1970 - 1970)

Antiquarian and art-collector who had the astounding foresight to purchase the first copy of Rodin’s ‘the Thinker’ when Paris rejected it, to use as his own memorial. The same statue is on Rodin’s own grave in Meudon, France, but is a later copy.

Sir Francis Bernard Dicksee (1853 - 1928)

Artist. A member of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, he was born to a very artistic family; his father, brother and sister were all well-known artists. Elected president of the Royal Academy in 1924, he was knighted in 1925, but died suddenly three years later. (bio by: Kristen Conrad)  Family links:  Spouse:  Margaret Isabel Dicksee (1858 – […]

James Watson Gerard (1970 - 1874)

Social Reformer and Lawyer. Born in New York City, he was the son of William Gerard, a reputable merchant. James would graduate from Columbia College in 1811. Soon after his graduation he enrolled in volunteer company called “The Iron Greys.”  A raised defense of harbor during the war with Great Britain. He then began to […]

Louis Palma di Cesnola (1832 - 1904)

American Civil War Medal of Honor Recipient. Born Luigi Palma di Cesnola, he was the son of a count and military officer at Rivarolo Canavese, Piedmont, in the Kingdom of Sardinia. At the age of 15, he joined the Sardinian army and served in the First Italian War of Independence. During the Battle of Novara […]

Daryl F. Gates (1926 - 2010)

Los Angeles Police Chief.  As head of the LAPD from 1978 to 1992,  his tenure was marked by controversy. Raised in Glendale,  California under poor circumstances, he gained an initial negative impression of the police after observing officers’ treatment of his alcoholic father. Gates had his own brush with the law at 16 when he […]

Anthony Devas (1911 - 1958)

Successful portrait artist on the 1940s and 1950s, whose works are in many UK national collections. (bio by: David Conway)

Reynaldo G. Garza (1915 - 2004)

First Mexican-American Federal Judge. Born the son of Mexican immigrants in Brownsville, Texas, he earned a law degree at the University of Texas in 1939. During WW II, he served in the Army Air Forces from 1942 to 1945 and returned to private law practice in Brownsville. In 1961, President Kennedy appointed him the first […]

Jean Despujols (1886 - 1965)

French Painter. His greatest body of work is held in toto at the Meadows Museum of Art at Centenary College in Shreveport, Louisiana. These works depict French Indochina before the destruction of World War II and the wars that followed it. He fled to the United States to escape the Nazi occupation of France, and […]

Earling Carothers “Jim” Garrison (1921 - 1992)

JFK Assassination Figure. He was the New Orleans District Attorney whose investigation into President John F. Kennedy’s assassination led to the trial of businessman Clay Shaw, who was the only person ever brough to trial in connection with the assassination. Shaw was later aquitted. Much of motion picture director Oliver Stone’s movie “JFK” was based […]

William Wallace Denslow (1856 - 1915)

Illustrator. Among his best known pictures are ‘What’s the Use?’ and ‘Victory.’ He illustrated the book ‘The Wonderful Wizard of Oz,’ and also designed the costumes and scenery for plays such as ‘Wizard of Oz’ and ‘The Pearl and the Pumpkin.’ (bio by: Laurie)

Pat Garrett (1850 - 1908)

Western Law Officer. He was the sheriff that allegedly gunned down Billy the Kid. On February 29, 1908, he was traveling from Las Cruces, New Mexico to his ranch with Wayne Brazel and Carl Adamson. He got out of the buggy and while urinating a bullet slammed into the back of his head. He spun […]

Dominique-Vivant Denon (1747 - 1825)

French Designer and Painter. He moved to Egypt in the Expedition of Napoleon Bonaparte, and maded designs of monuments and landscapes that contributed to the birth of Egyptology. His works and the others expedicionaries appeared in “Description de l’Egypte” de Jomard. He also wrote “Voyage dans le Haute et Basse Egypte.” (bio by: José L […]

Hamilton Rowan Gamble (1798 - 1864)

Civil War Missouri Governor. After moving to St. Louis to practice law with his older brother, Gamble became Secretary of State of Missouri in 1824. His reputation in his profession grew steadily & in 1851 resulted in his election to the Missouri Supreme Court. Gamble’s most famous opinion while on Missouri’s highest court was his […]

Charles Demuth (1883 - 1935)

Painter. An outstanding watercolorist, he later pioneered abstract art in the United States with a style called Precisionism. His most famous painting, “The Figure 5 in Gold” (1928), was a forerunner of the Pop Art movement and greatly influenced such figures as Andy Warhol and Jasper Johns. Demuth was born in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, where he […]

John William “Will” Fritz (1896 - 1984)

Lawman, Kennedy Assassination Figure. As head of the Dallas Police Department’s Robbery-Homicide unit in 1963, he was Lee Harvey Oswald’s primary interrogator.  Law enforcement officers led by him interrogated Oswald over the less than 48 hours between his arrest and death. John Fritz was present for more of the questioning than any other officer.  Family […]

Jelka Delius (1868 - 1935)

Painter. Born Jelka Rosen in born in Belgrade, Serbia, she was best remembered for being the wife of English composer Frederick Delius. Becoming a successful painter in her own rights, she studied and practiced art in Paris, exhibiting in the Salon des Indépendants. She met Delius in 1896, they married in 1903 and she inherited […]

Eugène Delacroix (1798 - 1863)

Painter. His father was the Foreign Minister under the Directory and Prefecture of Marseilles. He become an orphan at the age of 16. In 1816 he entered the School of Fine Arts. In 1822 he presented his first Masterpiece “The Barque of Dante.” He went to England in the summer 1825 and made some lithograph […]

Roswell Martin Field (1807 - 1869)

Dred Scott’s lawyer, father of famous author and poet Eugene Field. Field was admitted to the bar by the time he was 18. He served at state’s attorney for his country from 1832 to 1835. Fields came to St. Louis in 1839 & after several difficult years, his fortune changed in 1853 when he became […]

Delia Del Carril (1884 - 1989)

Argentinian Painter. She studied in Paris with Léger and André Lothe. Her paintings were influenced by expressionism and Mexican muralism. In 1934, she met Chilean poet Pablo Neruda and began a relationship that spanned twenty years. They were married in 1943. Among her works “Cantar de los Cantares,” “Caballo y Luna” and “Señora Yegua.” (bio […]

Ted DeGrazia (1909 - 1982)

Noted Artist. Known for his paintings of various Southwest Native American children. In 1965, he opened the Gallery in the Sun in Tucson, Arizona. In 1982 the DeGrazia Foundation was established to insure the continued operation of the Gallery. He is buried on the grounds of the Gallery, which include his studio, his house, and […]

Judge Macon Bolling Allen (1816 - 1894)

Judicial Figure. He was the first African-American in United States history to received a law degree and to receive a judgeship. Born in Indiana as a freeman, he was self taught, and ultimately becoming a school teacher in Indiana where he taught for five years. In the late 1830’s he elected to move to Portland, […]

Edgar Degas (1834 - 1917)

Painter and sculptor. He was son of a banker. Although prepared for the law, he abandoned it for painting, studying at the School of art and in Italy, copying 15th- and 16th-century masters. He was gifted as a draftsman and a brilliantly subtle and penetrating portraitist. He exhibited for six years in the Salon (1865 […]

Roy DeForest (1930 - 2007)

Artist. He is regarded as one of the most important artists of his generation and a founding member of modern “Funk Art”. In the 1960s, his art captured world wide attention for it’s cartoon-like images and pop-culture themes. DeForest painted compositions filled with images of birds, farm animals, humans and other figures, some of them […]

Billy DeBeck (1890 - 1942)

Cartoonist. He drew the comic strip “Barney Google” from 1919 to 1942. Another of his well known characters was ‘Snuffy Smith’. (bio by: Ginny M)

Alphonse Marie Adolphe de Neuville (1835 - 1885)

Artist. A French Academic painter, he is remembered for his battle scenes from the Crimean War, the Franco-Prussian War, and the Anglo-Zulu War. Born into a wealthy family, after earning his Bachelor of Letters he entered the naval school at Lorient, in Brittany, France in 1856. While there, he became interested in painting and worked […]

Sir Roger De Grey (1918 - 1995)

British Artist. He studied art at Chelsea Polytechnic from 1936 under Harold Williamson and Raymond Coxon. His studies were interrupted by World War II, when he served with the Royal Armoured Corps. After the war he taught at Kings College, Newcastle University, the Royal College of Art, and the City and Guilds of London Art […]