Public Figures & Cultural Luminaries

Arts & Music

1,489

🕯️ 106

J. M. W. Turner

Joseph Mallord William Turner

United Kingdom

1775 – 1851 (76 years old)

England's supreme 'Painter of Light' whose luminous, swirling seascapes and steam locomotives heralded Modernism.

London, United Kingdom

1,489 Full Record →

Arts & Music

7

🕯️ 998

Frédéric François Chopin (Fryderyk Franciszek Chopin)

Fryderyk Chopin

Poland

1 March 1810 – 17 October 1849 (39 years old)

Polish musical genius and 'Poet of the Piano' whose nocturnes, ballades, polonaises, and études revolutionized piano technique and embodied the heroic yearning (*żal*) of Polish national identity.

Paris, French Second Republic

7 Full Record →

Arts & Music

10

🕯️ 998

Katsushika Hokusai

葛飾 北斎

Japan

31 October 1760 – 10 May 1849 (~89 years old)

Supreme master of Japanese ukiyo-e woodblock printing whose iconic series Thirty-Six Views of Mount Fuji—above all The Great Wave off Kanagawa—captivated the world and inspired European Impressionism and Japonisme.

Edo (Tokyo), Japan

10 Full Record →

Arts & Music

3,913

🕯️ 102

Gaetano Donizetti

Domenico Gaetano Maria Donizetti

Cisalpine Republic (Italy)

1797 – 1848 (50 years old)

Leading Italian bel canto composer renowned for his dramatic tragedy Lucia di Lammermoor and comic gem L'elisir d'amore.

Bergamo, Italy

3,913 Full Record →

Arts & Music

1,438

🕯️ 152

Felix Mendelssohn

Jakob Ludwig Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy

Germany

1809 – 1847 (38 years old)

German early Romantic composer, pianist, and conductor celebrated for his luminous melodies and revival of J.S. Bach's music.

Berlin, Germany

1,438 Full Record →

Arts & Music

3

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Bertel Thorvaldsen

Bertel Thorvaldsen

Denmark-Norway

1770 – 1844 (73 years old)

Danish master sculptor of Neoclassicism whose severe classical purity rivaled Canova, creator of the 'Lion of Lucerne' and the majestic Christus statue in Copenhagen Cathedral.

Copenhagen, Denmark

3 Full Record →

Arts & Music

3,905

🕯️ 98

Niccolò Paganini

Niccolò Paganini

Republic of Genoa (Italy)

1782 – 1840 (57 years old)

Legendary Italian violin virtuoso and composer whose superhuman technical wizardry sparked rumors of a pact with the Devil.

Parma, Italy

3,905 Full Record →

Arts & Music

2,408

🕯️ 58

Caspar David Friedrich

Caspar David Friedrich

Germany

1774 – 1840 (65 years old)

Foremost painter of the German Romantic movement whose contemplative figures before majestic nature embodied the Sublime.

Dresden, Germany

2,408 Full Record →

Arts & Music

3,979

🕯️ 90

John Constable

John Constable

United Kingdom

1776 – 1837 (60 years old)

English Romantic landscape master celebrated for his loving, luminous paintings of Dedham Vale and The Hay Wain.

London, United Kingdom

3,979 Full Record →

Arts & Music

3,244

🕯️ 144

Vincenzo Bellini

Vincenzo Salvatore Carmelo Francesco Bellini

Kingdom of Sicily (Italy)

1801 – 1835 (33 years old)

Quintessential Italian bel canto composer celebrated for his long, flowing, melancholy melodies in Norma and I puritani.

Catania, Sicily, Italy

3,244 Full Record →

Arts & Music

6

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Muzio Clementi

Muzio Filippo Vincenzo Francesco Saverio Clementi

Papal States

1752 – 1832 (80 years old)

Italian-English composer, pianist, and instrument manufacturer celebrated as the 'Father of Modern Pianoforte Technique' and creator of the landmark pedagogical suite 'Gradus ad Parnassum'.

Evesham, United Kingdom

6 Full Record →

Arts & Music

2

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Sir Thomas Lawrence

Thomas Lawrence

Kingdom of Great Britain

1769 – 1830 (60 years old)

Child prodigy and President of the Royal Academy who became the pre-eminent British portraitist of the Regency era, immortalized by his Waterloo Chamber royal portraits.

London, United Kingdom

2 Full Record →

Arts & Music

9

🕯️ 970

Franz Peter Schubert

Franz Peter Schubert

Austria

31 January 1797 – 19 November 1828 (31 years old)

Austrian Early Romantic composer of heartbreaking melodic beauty who elevated the German Lied to an immortal fine art form with over 600 art songs (Erlkönig, Winterreise) and composed the Unfinished Symphony.

Vienna, Austria

9 Full Record →

Arts & Music

2

🕯️ 0

Jean-Antoine Houdon

Jean-Antoine Houdon

Kingdom of France

1741 – 1828 (87 years old)

Supreme French portrait sculptor of the Enlightenment whose vivid marble busts captured Voltaire, Diderot, Benjamin Franklin, and George Washington with intense psychological realism.

Paris, France

2 Full Record →

Arts & Music

9

🕯️ 985

Francisco José de Goya y Lucientes

Francisco de Goya

Spain

30 March 1746 – 16 April 1828 (82 years old)

Visionary Spanish master whose fearless art chronicled royal vanity (Charles IV), the brutal horrors of war (The Third of May 1808), and the terrifying dark phantoms of the human subconscious in his Black Paintings.

Bordeaux, France

9 Full Record →

Arts & Music

9

🕯️ 999

Ludwig van Beethoven

Ludwig van Beethoven

Germany

17 December 1770 (Baptism) – 26 March 1827 (~57 years old)

Colossus of Western music who triumphed over total deafness to propel music into the Romantic era with volcanic emotional power, heroism, and cosmic brotherhood in his 9 Symphonies, 32 Piano Sonatas, and late String Quartets.

Vienna, Austria

9 Full Record →

Arts & Music

2

🕯️ 0

Carl Maria von Weber

Carl Maria Friedrich Ernst von Weber

Holstein

1786 – 1826 (39 years old)

German composer, conductor, and critic acclaimed as the father of German Romantic opera, immortalized by 'Der Freischütz', 'Euryanthe', and his brilliant clarinet concertos.

London, United Kingdom

2 Full Record →

Arts & Music

3,960

🕯️ 36

Jacques-Louis David

Jacques-Louis David

Kingdom of France

1748 – 1825 (77 years old)

Preeminent painter of the Neoclassical era and official artist of the French Revolution and Napoleon Bonaparte.

Brussels, Belgium

3,960 Full Record →