Historical Archives & Public Figures

Maximilien Luce

France

1858 – 1941 (82 years old)

French Neo-Impressionist painter, engraver, and anarchist whose vibrant pointillist canvases of steelworks, blast furnaces, and the Paris Commune celebrated industrial labor.

Rolleboise, France

31 Full Record →

Arts & Music

32

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Silvestre Revueltas

Silvestre Revueltas Sánchez

Mexico

1899 – 1940 (40 years old)

Mexican composer and violinist celebrated for Sensemaya and La noche de los mayas, whose rhythmically ferocious, anti-romantic orchestral scores captured modern Mexican street energy and indigenous ritual.

Mexico City, Mexico

32 Full Record →

Arts & Music

5

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Kamal-ol-Molk

کمال‌الملک / محمد غفاری

Iran

1848 – 18 August 1940 (92 years old)

Legendary Iranian master painter who introduced European academic realism to Persia, famous for 'The Mirror Hall' and founding the Sanaye-ye Mostazrafeh.

Nishapur, Iran

5 Full Record →

Arts & Music

1,211

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Paul Klee

Ernst Paul Klee

Switzerland

1879 – 1940 (60 years old)

Swiss-German painter and Bauhaus master whose whimsical, poetic visual language synthesized Expressionism, Cubism, and Surrealism.

Bern, Switzerland

1,211 Full Record →

Arts & Music

35

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Jean-Édouard Vuillard

Édouard Vuillard

France

1868 – 1940 (71 years old)

French Nabis painter and master of 'Intimism' whose layered, wallpaper-patterned domestic interiors and portraits of Parisian literary salons created a cozy, psychological modernism.

Paris, France

35 Full Record →

Arts & Music

39

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Peter Behrens

Germany

1868 – 1940 (71 years old)

German architect and pioneer of corporate identity who designed the monumental AEG Turbine Factory and mentored Gropius, Mies van der Rohe, and Le Corbusier.

Berlin, Germany

39 Full Record →

Arts & Music

23

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Cheikh El Afrit

الشيخ العفريت

Tunisia

1897 – July 2, 1939 (42 years old)

Renowned Tunisian Jewish singer and oud virtuoso whose mastery of Andalusian malouf, witty popular songs, and soulful delivery made him a legendary fixture of the royal Bardo court and 1930s café culture.

Tunis, Tunisia

23 Full Record →

Arts & Music

6

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Mohamed Ben Ali R'bati

محمد بن علي الرباطي

Morocco

1861 – 1939 (78 years old)

Recognized as Morocco's earliest modern easel and watercolor painter, whose enchanting figurative scenes of Tangier and traditional life were exhibited at the Goupil Gallery in London in 1916.

Tangier, Morocco

6 Full Record →

Arts & Music

1,340

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Robert Johnson

Robert Leroy Johnson

United States

1911 – 1938 (27 years old)

Mythic Delta blues singer and guitarist whose 29 recordings shaped rock and roll and spawned the crossroads legend.

Morgan City, Mississippi, United States

1,340 Full Record →

Arts & Music

34

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Pedro Figari

Pedro Figari Castro

Uruguay

1861 – 1938 (77 years old)

Uruguayan post-impressionist painter, lawyer, and educational reformer celebrated for his colorful, rhythmic canvases portraying Afro-Uruguayan candombe dances and colonial salon life.

Montevideo, Uruguay

34 Full Record →

Arts & Music

37

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Ernst Ludwig Kirchner

Germany

1880 – 1938 (58 years old)

German Expressionist painter and printmaker who was a founding figure of Die Brücke, renowned for his jagged, psychologically charged depictions of modern Berlin street life.

Frauenkirch, Switzerland

37 Full Record →

Arts & Music

34

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Marie-Clémentine Valadon

Suzanne Valadon

France

1865 – 1938 (72 years old)

Pioneering French painter, circus acrobat, and artist's model who was championed by Degas, became the first woman admitted to the Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts, and mothered Maurice Utrillo.

Paris, France

34 Full Record →

Arts & Music

40

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Joseph Maurice Ravel

Maurice Ravel

France

7 March 1875 – 28 December 1937 (62 years old)

French composer and supreme orchestral wizard celebrated for his precision craftsmanship, Basque-Spanish elegance, and dazzling sonic imagination in Boléro, Pavane pour une infante défunte, and Daphnis et Chloé.

Paris, France

40 Full Record →

Arts & Music

13

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Dawood Hosni

داود حسني (ديفيد حاييم ليفي)

Egypt

1870 – 1937 (67 years old)

Pioneering Jewish-Egyptian musical genius who composed the first complete modern Arabic operetta (Sabah, 1919), recorded over 500 classical taqatiq, and discovered and trained young Umm Kulthum and Asmahan.

Cairo, Egypt

13 Full Record →

Arts & Music

3,838

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Bessie Smith

United States

1894 – 1937 (43 years old)

'Empress of the Blues' and the highest-earning Black artist of the Jazz Age, whose raw vocal power inspired generations.

Sharon Hill, Pennsylvania, United States

3,838 Full Record →

Arts & Music

3,670

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George Gershwin

Jacob Gershwine

United States

1898 – 1937 (38 years old)

Genius American composer and pianist who seamlessly fused jazz, blues, and Broadway song into classical orchestral music.

Hastings-on-Hudson, New York, United States

3,670 Full Record →

Arts & Music

3,151

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Alban Berg

Alban Maria Johannes Berg

Austria

1885 – 1935 (50 years old)

Austrian composer of the Second Viennese School who fused dodecaphonic rigor with Mahlerian romantic warmth in Wozzeck and Lulu.

Vienna, Austria

3,151 Full Record →

Arts & Music

33

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Paul Signac

France

1863 – 1935 (71 years old)

Co-founder of Neo-Impressionism / Pointillism alongside Georges Seurat, president of the Société des Artistes Indépendants, and author of 'From Eugène Delacroix to Neo-Impressionism'.

Paris, France

33 Full Record →

Public Figures & Cultural Luminaries