Auguste Rodin

popular name: Norman Rockwell

date_of_death: November 8, 1978

age: 84

cause_of_death: Emphysema

claim_to_fame: Artists

best_know_for: Norman Rockwell was a prolific American painter and artist, producing more than 4,000 original works in his lifetime. He is most famous for the cover illustrations of everyday life he created for The Saturday Evening Post magazine over nearly five decades. Among the best-known of Rockwell's works are the Willie Gillis series, Rosie the Riveter, The Problem We All Live With, Saying Grace, and the Four Freedoms series.

popular name: Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres

date_of_death: January 14, 1867

age: 86

cause_of_death: Pneumonia

claim_to_fame: Artists

best_know_for: Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres (1780–1867) was a French Neoclassical painter, widely regarded for his mastery in portraiture and his precise, smooth technique. Born in Montauban, France, Ingres showed early talent in drawing, leading him to study at the prestigious École des Beaux-Arts in Paris. He was a student of Jacques-Louis David, a leading figure in the Neoclassical movement, which emphasized order, clarity, and idealized forms. Ingres' career spanned several decades, during which he developed a style distinct from the Romantic movement that was emerging in France. Though he was often criticized for being too rigid and traditional, he stuck to his classical ideals, focusing on linear precision, a sense of balance, and attention to detail. His most famous works include portraits like Madame Moitessier, Mademoiselle Caroline Rivière (1806) and historical paintings such as The Apotheosis of Homer. In his lifetime, Ingres achieved considerable recognition, including being appointed the director of the French Academy in Rome, where he spent a significant period of his life. His influence extended beyond his own time, impacting later artists, including the development of academic and modernist art. Upon his death at the age of 82, Ingres was interred in the Père Lachaise Cemetery in Paris with a tomb sculpted by his student Jean-Marie Bonnassieux. The contents of his studio, including a number of major paintings, over 4000 drawings, and his violin, were bequeathed by the artist to the city museum of Montauban, now known as the Musée Ingres. Upon his death, he was interred at Cimetière du Père-Lachaise in Paris, France.

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).