Pierre-Jean David d’Angers (1788 - 1856)

Sculptor. Born in Angers, France, he was a French sculptor and medalists. As one of the most versatile artist of his era, he was judged by many contemporary critics to be the greatest sculptor of the 19th Century. He began modeling figures during his three-year sojourn in Italy, after winning the coveted Prix de Rome […]

Jacques Louis David (1748 - 1825)

Artist. An influential painter in the French Neoclassical style, he is considered to be the preeminent painter of the era. Born into a wealthy family, around the age of nine his father was killed in a duel and his mother left him in the care of his affluent uncles. He received his education at the […]

Estelle Lebost Reiner (1914 - 2008)

Actress, Singer. The wife of comedian Carl Reiner and the mother of motion picture director Rob Reiner, she was raised in the Bronx, New York City, New York, where she studied art after graduating from high school and met her future husband while designing sets in the Catskills. The family lived in New Rochelle, New […]

Honoré Daumier (1808 - 1879)

Artist.  He spent most of his career creating lithographs for French newspapers,  in which he bitterly satirized the faults of the bourgeoisie,  the corruption of the law,  and the injustices of his age.  His late-period prints bear an astonishing resemblance to today’s political cartoons.  As a painter Daumier pioneered in unblemished portrayals of working-class life, […]

Margaret L. Reid (1903 - 1965)

Actress. She appeared in The Sentimental Bloke (1919), Sleepy Lagoon (1943) and It Happened One Night (1934). She was previously married to screenwriter David Hertz.

Felix Octavius Carr Darley (1821 - 1888)

Artist. Born in Philadelphia, he began drawing in his youth. He moved to New York in 1848 and in 1850 he was invited to illustrate Washington Irving’s works ‘The Legend of Sleepy Hollow’ and ‘Rip Van Winkle’. He continued to illustrate works by Washington Irving but added James Fenimore Cooper, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Longfellow, James Whitcomb […]

Henry Darger (1892 - 1973)

Folk Artist. Henry Darger was a Chicago artist best known for the illustrations to his 15,000-page novel, “The Story of the Vivian Girls, in What is Known as the Realms of the Unreal, of the Glandeco-Angelinnian War Storm, Caused by the Child Slave Rebellion.” Raised in a brutal orphanage, he spent most of his adult […]

Thora Dardel (1899 - 1995)

Artist. Born Thora Klinckowstrom in Sweden, she moved to Paris in 1919, where she met fellow Swedish painter Nils Dardel. They married in 1921. She was the model for the heroine Svea in Raymond Radiguet’s famous novel “The Devil In The Flesh” (1923), about a married woman who seduces a teenage boy.  Dardel denied having […]

Mabel Lillian Rea (1932 - 1968)

Actress. Born in Charlotte, North Carolina, she began her career as a Rockette dancer and made her film debut in “Bundle of Joy” (1956) followed by “The Unholy Wife” (1957). Her other credits included “Pal Joey” (1957), “The Joker Is Wild” (1957), “Sad Sack” (1957), “The Devil’s Hairpin” (1957), “Submarine Seahawk” (1958) and “The Girl […]

Nils Dardel (1888 - 1943)

Painter. Full name Nils Elias Christoffer von Dardel. A leading Post-Impressionist, his original style was inspired by folk art, the pure colors of the Fauves, and by Japanese woodcuts.  Born in Bettna,  Sweden,  he studied at the Royal Swedish Academy of Art and settled in Paris in 1910.  He was married to painter Thora Dardel […]

George Dance (1741 - 1825)

British architect who was responsible for extensive urban redevelopment in London and was a founding member of the Royal Academy of Arts.  The youngest son of George Dance the Elder, who was clerk of works to the City of London from 1735 to 1768, the younger Dance received his formal training in the office of […]

George Dalziel (1815 - 1902)

Engraver. Son of Alexander Dalziel (1781–1832) and his wife, Elizabeth Hills. Sibling to seven brothers and four sisters. George was a draughtsman and wood-engraver, the founder and leader of the London firm, he was born in December 1815, at Wooler, Northumberland, and was educated at Newcastle upon Tyne. He went to London early in 1835 […]

Marcia Ralston (1906 - 1988)

Actress. She is best remembered in “The Singing Marine”(1937), “Ever Since Eve”(1937), “Men Are Such Fools”(1938) and “Crime Takes a Holiday”(1938). She died of subarachnoid haemorrhage.  (bio by: MC)

Jules Dalou (1838 - 1902)

Sculptor. Born in Paris to a working-class family of Huguenot background, he was raised in an atmosphere of being separate from religion and Republican socialism. He was the pupil of Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux, who sponsored him for the Petite École (future École nationale supérieure des arts décoratifs), where he sympathized with Alphonse Legros and Fantin-Latour. In […]

Nicholas Peter Dallis (1911 - 1991)

Cartoonist. He was a psychiatrist in Scottsdale, Arizona, when he came up with several ideas for comic strips. He later quit his practice to focus on writing the strips. He created the strips, “Judge Parker,” “Rex Morgan, M.D.,” and “Apartment 3-G,” which appeared in more than 400 newspapers worldwide.

Elliott Daingerfield (1859 - 1932)

Painter. The son of Captain John Elliott Daingerfield and Matilda Wickham DeBrau Daingerfield. Raised in Fayetteville, North Carolina. At 21 he moved to New York to study art. during his first year in New York, Daingerfield exhibited his work The Monk Smelling a Bottle of Wine at the National Academy of Design. He left Satterlee […]

Valérie Quennessen (1957 - 1989)

French Actress. She dedicated much of her childhood to pursuing her dream of becoming an acrobat. She quickly reached a level of competence and received an award for her expertise at the age of ten. By her teens, she had given up acrobatics and enrolled in acting classes, not because she particularly wanted to get […]

George Cruikshank (1791 - 1878)

Illustrator,  Cartoonist,  Editor.  Considered one of England’s  outstanding 19th Century graphic artists.  He is probably best remembered today for his association with author Charles Dickens.  Cruikshank was born in London,  to Scottish parents.  He apprenticed with his father,  a noted printmaker,  and by age 18 was already famous as a political cartoonist.  His pungent observations […]

Anna Przybylska (1978 - 2014)

Actress, Model. A pretty brunette, she is remembered for numerous film appearances as well as for a large number of print and television ads. Raised on the north central coast of Poland, she had early modeling ambitions but in 1997 got her initial assignment in the form of her silver screen debut in “The Dark […]

Aileen Pringle (1895 - 1989)

Actress. She starred in numerous Hollywood features of the 1920s and 1930s. Born Aileen Bisbee to a family of wealth and high position, she was educated in Europe and started her theatrical career shortly after her 1916 marriage to Charles McKenzie Pringle, child of rich British nobility. Billed as “Aileen Savage” in her first few […]

Marie Prevost (1898 - 1937)

Actress. Born Mary Bickford Dunn in Sarnia, Ontario, Canada, as a child she first moved to Denver, Colorado with her parents and then to Los Angeles, California. She worked as a stenographer, but after many comments about her good looks, she was hired by producer Mack Sennett, who gave her her stage name. She was […]

Pietro Consagra (1920 - 2005)

Italian Abstract Sculptor. He was born in Mazara del Vallo (Sicily) and died in Milan. He is best known for his works in iron and bronze. He moved to Rome in the mid-1940s and co-founded a group named “Forma.” Consagra was also an essayist and art critic. He published “La Necessita della Scultura” and an […]

Marcia Anne Henderson Prestlien (1929 - 1987)

Actress.  Born in Andover, Massachusetts to John Day Henderson and Dorothy Crofts Henderson. She made her first public appearance at the age of 5 in an Easter service at the Congregational Church at Hampden, Connecticut. Acting was her passion while attending public schools. Marcia  began to act on a regular basis with local drama groups […]

Bruce Conner (1933 - 2008)

Artist and filmmaker. Born in in McPherson, Kansas, he was world renowned as a pioneering collage filmmaker and Beat-era assemblage artist,  recognized for his work in many creative disciplines. His gauzy assemblages of scraps salvaged from abandoned buildings, nylon stockings, doll parts, and other found materials initially gained him art-world attention. Best remembered for his […]

Mari Carmen Prendes (1906 - 2002)

Spanish-born screen, stage and television actress, sister of actors Mercedes and Luis Prendes. She made her debut on stage at the age of 15 in the play “Los millones de Monty.” Before the start of Spanish Civil War she went to Buenos Aires(Argentina) and she not returned to Spain until 1945. On stage she played […]

Josiah Conder (1852 - 1920)

Architect. Originally from England, Conder was invited to Japan in 1977 to teach architecture. He trained most of the major Japanese architects of the Meiji era and designed buildings that included the Tokyo Imperial Museum, the Rokumeikan and the St. Nikolai Cathedral. (bio by: Warrick L. Barrett)

Hana Maria Pravda (1918 - 2008)

Actress, Director, Author. She made her screen debut as Hana Beck at age seventeen in “Mariika the Unfaithful” (1934), which was soon followed by leading roles in several Czechoslovakian movies. She then went to Leningrad, to study drama under the Russian director Alexei Dikii, and while there witnessed Stalin’s purges of 1936 to 1937. After […]

Leon Dabo (1865 - 1960)

Artist, muralist, writer, and lecturer. He was born Leon Schott and was the eldest son of Ignace Schott and Madeleine Oberle. Born in France, he was 5yrs old when the family immigrated to the U.S. on January 5, 1870. The Schott’s settled in Detroit, MI where Ignace, an artist, was Leon’s first art instructor. When […]

David d’Angers (1788 - 1856)

French Artist.  A prolific sculptor and medalist, he is remembered for his work on the pediment of the Pantheon in Paris, France and the statue “Wounded Philopoemen” (1837) that resides in the Louvre Museum.  Born Pierre-Jean David, his father was a wood carver who joined the French Republican Army in their fight against the Chouans […]

Alice Playten (1947 - 2011)

Actress. Born Alice Plotkin, her career spanned nearly five decades performing on stage, television and movies. She made her Broadway debut in the role as Baby Louise for the original musical production “Gypsy” in 1959. She went on to star in productions of “Hello, Dolly!”, “Seussical”, “Oliver!”, “Rumors” and “Caroline or Change”. For feature films, […]