Rosemary Dexter (1944 - 2010)

Actress, Model. Often cast in sexually frank-themed films. Born in Pakistan, to a British father, her mother was of Anglo-Burmese descent. While vacationing in Italy, she was spotted by director Ugo Gregoretti who cast her in the Science Fiction picture “Omicron” (1963). She became known to a broader audience, when she played Lee Van Cleef’s […]

José Camarón Boronat (1730 - 1803)

Painter. Considered one of the leading Spanish Painters of the 18th century. Born in Segorbe, Castellón, Boronat studied in Valencia and Madrid. In 1753 he settled in Comunidad Valenciana,  where he created one of his most important paintings,  “The Last Supper.” In the second half of the century he also prolific as an illustrator. Boronat […]

Colleen Dewhurst (1924 - 1991)

Actress. During her 45-year career, she is remembered mostly for her theater roles and was once regarded as “the Queen of Off-Broadway.” Born Colleen Rose Dewhurst in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, she was an only child whose father owned a chain of confectionery stores. When she was around four years old, her family moved to Massachusetts, […]

Edward Calvert (1799 - 1883)

Painter,  Print Maker. His early work was greatly inspired by William Blake and he later became a member of the Blake-influenced group known as The Ancients.  He was born in Kent and studied at the Royal Academy. Among his finest works are exquisite wood engravings and etchings which date from the 1820s and early 1830s. […]

Frank J. Callier (1883 - 1971)

Internationally renowned violin maker. Known as the “Stradivari of his day.” (bio by: A.J. Marik)

Philip Calderon (1833 - 1898)

Artist. He began studying engineering, but became more interested in the drawing side of the profession, consequently deciding to become a painter. His first painting appeared at the academy in 1853, but he had little success until his painting, “Broken Vows” (1857), painted in the spirit of the Pre-Rapaelites was well received with the critics […]

Alexander Milne Calder (1846 - 1923)

Sculptor. The son of a stone-cutter, he studied carving at the Royal Institute of Arts in Edinburgh and also in Paris and in London, where he later worked on the carving of the Albert Memorial. In 1868 he went to Philadelphia and studied at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts with Thomas Eakins. In […]

Alexander Stirling Calder (1870 - 1945)

Sculptor.  Alexander Stirling Calder was the son of the renowned artist Alexander Milne Calder, who influenced his work and taught him most of what he applied in his later works.  A. Stirling Calder was taught by Thomas Eakins at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts as well as at the Académie Julian in Paris […]

Constance Adams DeMille (1874 - 1960)

Actress. Born Constance Adams in Orange, New Jersey, after graduating from school, she was performing on Broadway when she met and later married director-producer Cecil B. DeMille in August 1902. She only appeared in one film “Where The Trail Divides” (1914), but remained married to Cecil B. DeMille until his death in 1959. (bio by: […]

Alexander Calder (1898 - 1976)

Artist. A prolific sculptor, he is best known for inventing the kinetic sculptures called mobiles. The first American abstract sculptor to achieve international acclaim, he is considered one of the great pioneers of his time. Born in Lawnton, Pennsylvania (now part of Philadelphia) into a family of artists, both his father Alexander Stirling Calder and […]

Orane Demazis (1894 - 1991)

Actress. In a theater and motion picture career that lasted over fifty years, she appeared in twenty four films. Born to an Alsatian family that had emigrated to Algeria, she took her stage name from the city of her birth, and from Mazis, a neighboring town. She entered the Conservatory of Dramatic Arts in Paris, […]

Randolph Caldecott (1846 - 1886)

Artist. Prominent 19th Century Illustrator for whom the Caldecott Award, given each year by the American Libaray Association to an outstanding illustrator of children’s books, is named. (bio by: Allan Reichert)  Family links:  Parents:  John Caldecott (1812 – 1875)  Spouse:  Marian Harriet Brind Caldecott (1850 – 1932)*  Siblings:  John George Caldecott (1843 – 1879)*  Randolph […]

Gustave Caillebotte (1848 - 1894)

Artist. Born to a wealthy family who had made their money in textiles and real estate during the redevelopment of Paris in the 1860s, Gustave Caillebotte was an engineer by profession, but also attended the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris. He met Edgar Degas, Claude Monet, and Pierre Auguste Renoir in 1874 and helped organize […]

Henry Newell Cady (1849 - 1935)

Artist, Author. He was an 1869 graduate of Brown University and briefly attended the National Academy of Design in New York. Largely self-taught, his paintings were mostly New England coastal scenes. Among the places they were seen during his lifetime were the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair, the St. Louis Exposition of 1904, and the Expostion […]

Petra Cabot (1907 - 2006)

Inventor, Artist.  Born Emma Mearns in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on February 21, 1907, she was an only child. In 1945 she crafted a montage of newspaper clippings and photographs making up a historical mural representing the evolution of the National Maritime Union, which is 840 square feet in size and located at the union’s New York […]

Marisa Del Frate (1931 - 2015)

Actress, Singer. A pretty brunette who was a sought after model in her youth, she went on to a successful career in Italian cinema and television. Raised in the Italian Capital, she was attractive from an early age and got her start in show business by modelling, competing in beauty pageants, and appearing on the […]

Paul Cabet (1815 - 1970)

Sculptor. He studied at the art school of Dijon. Thereafter, he entered the studio of François Rude in 1834 and joined the Ecole des Beaux-Arts the following year. He works for a decade in the work of Rude . He even takes responsibility for the workshop Rude when he left for Italy in 1843.  After […]

Abraham M. Byers (1970 - 1920)

Abraham Byers was born in 1836 on a farm near Harrisburg, PA. At the age of 22 he acquired a photographic studio after settling a debt in Beardstown, Illinois. On May 7, 1858 Abraham Lincoln was a lawyer arguing the famous Duff Armstrong case in the Beardstown Courthouse. That day Lincoln won the aquittal of […]

Lady Elizabeth Southerden Thompson Butler (1846 - 1933)

Artist.  Encouraged by her parents to sketch and paint from an early age, she began studying art about 1862, and in 1866 entered the Female School of Art in London.  As a young woman, she and her younger sister, poet and essayist Alice Meynell, and their parents spent much time in Italy, and there the […]

Dorothy DeBorba (1925 - 2010)

Actress. She appeared as a child performer in some 30 Hollywood films, memorably as the Little Rascal Dorothy in two dozen “Our Gang” comedy shorts. The child of a musician in Paul Whiteman’s orchestra, little Dorothy made her silver screen bow with the 1930 “A Royal Romance” and was spotted by “Our Gang” producer Hal […]

Ferruccio Busoni (1866 - 1924)

Composer and Virtuoso Pianist. Ferruccio Busoni was the only child of two professional musicians: his Italian/German mother a pianist, his Italian father a clarinetist. He was a child prodigy. He made his public debut on the piano with his parents, at the age of seven. A couple of years later he played some of his […]

Ernie Bushmiller (1905 - 1982)

Cartoonist. The son of Ernest George Bushmiller, artist, vaudevillian, and bartender; and Elizabeth Hall. Ernie quit school at the tender age of 14 to work as a copy boy at the New York World newspaper. He attended classes at the National Academy of Design. Running errands for the staff cartoonists, he  persuaded occasional drawing assignments, […]

Joseph Henry Bush (1970 - 1865)

Artist. A portraitist, he studied under famed artist Thomas Sully in Philadelphia from 1814 to 1817 in an apprenticeship financed by statesman Henry Clay. Painted well known subjects such as Henry Clay, Dr. Benjamin Dudley and Zachary Taylor. One portrait of President Taylor crafted by Bush is now displayed in the White House Collection in […]

Lorella De Luca (1940 - 2014)

Actress. She made her film debut at the age of fifteen in the Federico Fellini’s film ‘Il bidone’ (1955). Later, she attended the Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia in Rome. In 1952, he obtained a role in Dino Risi’s film ‘Povera ma Bella’. The film’s success, made her one of the most popular actresses in the […]

Wilhelm Busch (1832 - 1908)

Painter and Poet. The first of seven children to the marriage of Henriette Kleine and Friedrich Wilhelm Busch. His six siblings followed shortly after: Fanny (1834), Gustav (1836), Adolf (1838), Otto (1841), Anna (1843) and Hermann (1845); all survived childhood. In 1859, after study at academies in Düsseldorf, Antwerp, and Munich, Busch began to contribute […]

Decimus Burton (1800 - 1881)

Architect. He was responsible for planning the layout in 1825 of Hyde Park in London. He studied under the tutorship of his father James Burton (1761-1837) and then John Nash for whom he elaborated on the designs of Cornwall Terrace, facing London’s Regents Park. He was also a noted garden designer in the classical style […]

René Burri (1933 - 2014)

Photographer. He photographed almost all the wars and crises and many of the movers and shakers of the last sixty years, with many of his photographs becoming iconic. Many of his colleagues considered him the last great photojournalist of the twentieth century. He worked for Magnum Photos and became a full member in 1959. In […]

Edward Burra (1905 - 1976)

Artist. He is best known for his surreal paintings of urban subcultures.  Burra also designed the costumes and sets for many ballet productions, including “The ABC of Theatre” (1932), “Rio Grande” (1932), “Barabau” (1936), “Miracle of the Gorbals” (1944), “Carmen” (1947), “Don Juan” (1948) and “Don Quixote” (1950). In his later years he focused on […]

Silas Reese Burns (1855 - 1940)

American Architect. Burns graduated with a degree from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1875. From 1881 through 1907, he was a partner in the firm of Peters and Burns of Dayton, Ohio, which specialized in institutional and educational buildings. He moved to Los Angeles in 1907 and three years later, formed a partnership with […]

Daniel Hudson Burnham (1846 - 1912)

Architect. Known as”The Father of American City Planning”, he is best remembered for his direction of the World’s Columbian Exposition in 1892 to 1893, and for designing several famous buildings, including the New York City, New York’s Flatiron Building and the Postal Square Building in Washington, DC.  Born in Henderson, New York and raised in […]