Camille Corot

popular name: Andrew Wyeth

date_of_death: January 16, 2009

age: 91

cause_of_death: Died in his sleep after a brief illness.

claim_to_fame: Artists

best_know_for: Andrew Wyeth (1917–2009) was a prominent American realist painter, best known for his detailed and emotionally evocative works that captured the rural landscapes and people of Pennsylvania and Maine. Born in Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania, he was the youngest of five children of famed illustrator N.C. Wyeth, who served as both his teacher and greatest influence. Wyeth gained national recognition in 1948 with his painting Christina’s World, which became one of the most iconic images in American art. Throughout his career, he worked primarily in watercolor and tempera, developing a muted, meticulous style that reflected his introspective nature and deep attachment to his surroundings. Despite his popularity with the public, Wyeth’s work often sparked debate among critics, some praising his technical mastery and emotional depth, while others viewed him as overly nostalgic.

popular name: Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun

date_of_death: March 30, 1842

age: 86

cause_of_death: Ill health due to stroke

claim_to_fame: Artists

best_know_for: Élisabeth Louise Vigée Le Brun was one of the great portrait artists in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, easily the equal of Quentin de La Tour or Jean Baptiste Greuze. Born into relatively modest circumstances, she firmly established herself in society’s upper crust. After earning the favours of the king and his family, she became the official artist of Queen Marie Antoinette. One of the most successful women artists (unusually so for her time), particularly noted for her portraits of women, her father and first teacher, Louis Vigée, was a noted portraitist who worked chiefly in pastels. Her great opportunity came in 1779 when she was summoned to Versailles to paint a portrait of Queen Marie-Antoinette. The two women became friends, and in subsequent years Vigée-Lebrun painted more than 20 portraits of Marie-Antoinette in a great variety of poses and costumes. She also painted a great number of self-portraits, in the style of various artists whose work she admired. During her 60+ years as an artist, Le Brun created 660 portraits and 200 landscapes. In addition to many works in private collections, her paintings are owned by major museums such as the Louvre in Paris, Hermitage Museum in Saint Petersburg, National Gallery in London, Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, and many other collections in Europe and the United States. Since 1999 the record price for an original Elisabeth Vigée Le Brun at auction is $7,185,900 USD for Portrait of Muhammad Dervish Khan (full-length holding his sword in a landscape).

popular name: Camille Claudel

date_of_death: October 19, 1943

age: 78

cause_of_death: Stroke due to starvation

claim_to_fame: Artists

best_know_for: Camille Claudel was an immensely talented yet grossly underappreciated French sculptor known for her figurative works in bronze and marble. She died in relative obscurity in a mental hospital, but later gained recognition for the originality and quality of her work. The subject of several biographies and films, Claudel is well known for her sculptures including The Waltz and The Mature Age. The national Camille Claudel Museum in Nogent-sur-Seine opened in 2017 and she was a longtime associate (and lover) of sculptor Auguste Rodin and the Musée Rodin in Paris has a room dedicated to her works. Sculptures created by Claudel are also held in the collections of several major museums including the Musée d'Orsay in Paris, the Courtauld Institute of Art in London, the National Museum of Women in the Arts in Washington, D.C., the Philadelphia Museum of Art and the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles. Upon her death, she was interred at Cimetiere de Montfavet par Avignon.