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Martineau, Harriet

(Encyclopedia)Martineau, Harriet märˈtĭnō [key], 1802–76, English author. A journalist rather than a writer of literature, she was an enormously popular author. Her success is the more remarkable since she wa...

Renoir, Jean

(Encyclopedia)Renoir, Jean zhäN rənwärˈ [key], 1894–1979, French film director and writer, b. Paris; son of Pierre Auguste Renoir. He made his first film in 1926. Gathering around him a devoted coterie of act...

bronze sculpture

(Encyclopedia)bronze sculpture. Bronze is ideal for casting art works; it flows into all crevices of a mold, thus perfectly reproducing every detail of the most delicately modeled sculpture. It is malleable beneath...

Matisse, Henri

(Encyclopedia)Matisse, Henri äNrēˈ mätēsˈ [key], 1869–1954, French painter, sculptor, and lithographer. Along with Picasso, Matisse is considered one of the two foremost artists of the modern period. His co...

naturalism, in philosophy

(Encyclopedia)naturalism, in philosophy, a position that attempts to explain all phenomena and account for all values by means of strictly natural (as opposed to supernatural) categories. The particular meaning of ...

Clark, William

(Encyclopedia)Clark, William, 1770–1838, American explorer, one of the leaders of the Lewis and Clark expedition, b. Caroline co., Va.; brother of George Rogers Clark. He was an army officer (1792–96), serving ...

clearing

(Encyclopedia)clearing, in banking, the periodic settling of bankers' claims against each other, for which local banks establish clearinghouse associations. Clearinghouses are said to have existed in Florence by a....

Steichen, Edward

(Encyclopedia)Steichen, Edward stīˈkən [key], 1879–1973, American photographer, b. Luxembourg, reared in Hancock, Mich. Steichen is credited with the transformation of photography into an art form. At 16, whil...

Royal Danish Ballet

(Encyclopedia)Royal Danish Ballet, one of the oldest major ballet companies, established at the opening of Denmark's Royal Theater in Copenhagen in 1748. Its ballet school, which trains the group's dancers, has als...

social science

(Encyclopedia)social science, term for any or all of the branches of study that deal with humans in their social relations. Often these studies are referred to in the plural as the social sciences. Although human s...
 

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