Andrea Bregno (1970 - 1970)

Early Renaissance sculptor. His family was employed as the architects for the Doge’s Palace in Venice, when he was invited by Pope Pius II to move to Rome.  He began making a name for himself during the reign of Pope Sixtus IV when he was commissioned to work on several notable tombs for the cardinals […]

Victor Brauner (1903 - 1966)

Surrealist painter, associate of Man Ray, born in Rumania. Sudent of magic, which influenced his work. (bio by: David Conway)

Brassai (1899 - 1984)

Hungarian Photojournalist, Portraitist. As a young man, he studied painting and sculpture in the Academy of Fine Arts in Budapest. Later he became a journalist, moving to Paris in 1918. There he fell in love with the city and with the camera. Brassai is renowned for his photographic chronicles of the night. As a poor […]

Rex Brasher (1869 - 1960)

Painter. Rex was born in Brooklyn, New York, into an old Huguenot family. His grandfather Philip was a member of the  New York State Legislature. Rex became passionate about birds at an early age, due to the influence of his father, an avid naturalist and bird taxidermist. In 1878, at the age of eight he […]

Georges Braque (1882 - 1963)

Painter.  With Pablo Picasso he developed Cubism,  an important movement of 20th Century art.  He and other Cubists created new ways of depicting space and movement by fragmenting objects into basic geometric forms,  showing them at all angles at once,  and merging them with their backgrounds.  Braque was also among the first to incorporate typesetting […]

Katharine Cornell (1893 - 1974)

Actress.  She was born in Berlin.  Her family moved to the U.S. and she was raised in Buffalo New York. She married Guthrie McClintic in 1921 and they lived together until his death in 1961. However, it was well known in theatrical circles that the relationship was platonic as both were involved with others of […]

Enoch Lloyd Branson (1970 - 1925)

Acclaimed Artist. He was one of the first East Tennessee painters to travel outside the state to study art, spending 1873-1875 at the National Academy of Design in New York City. After some studying abroad, he came back to Knoxville, Tennessee, in 1876. He raised art standards in East Tennessee through his paintings and by […]

Martin Branner (1888 - 1970)

Cartoonist. He was the creator behind the comic strip, “Winnie Winkle”, which ran in newspapers for 50 years, 1920 to 1970. The cartoon strip was not once but on several occasions considered to be “risque” because Winnie would romp around without her dress. The critics objected to the cartoon strip but the attention from her […]

Joyce Ballantyne Brand (1918 - 2006)

Artist. She was best known for her drawing of the “Coppertone baby” advertisement, in which a little girl is having her bathing suit tugged down by a puppy, exposing her tan line and her bottom. The model for the drawing was her daughter, Cheri Brand Irwin, who was 3 years old. According to Ms. Brand, […]

Gladys Cooper (1888 - 1971)

Actress. She began her career as a chorus-girl line dancer, made her stage début in 1905 at age 17 and became one of the United Kingdoms most renowned performers. DuringWorld War I, she was the British troops’ most popular pin-up girl and appeared on Broadway in the 1930s.  She appeared in many British one-reeler films […]

Constantin Brancusi (1876 - 1957)

Sculptor. Son of a poor peasant and a self-taught man, Brancusi began his career as an apprentice to a cabinet maker. He later worked as an art student and was influenced by Rodin. His style moved beyond naturalist representation to stylized elegant forms.

Joe Brainard (1942 - 1994)

Artist. He was born in Salem (Arkansas) and died in New York. In 1964, he made his first New York solo exhibition, at the Alan Gallery. Subsequently he showed regularly at the Landau-Alan and Fischbach galleries, and took part in many group shows around the country and abroad, including those at the Museum of Modern […]

Georgina Cookson (1918 - 2011)

Actress. Although not much has been chronicled about her early life, she moved to London prior to initiating what was to become a distinguishable career in British films, TV and stage. Cookson marked her motion picture debut with the comedy “I Didn’t Do It” (1945) and appeared in the short-lived Broadway play “Love Goes to […]

Claude Fayette Bragdon (1866 - 1946)

Architect, stage designer, and author.  Bragdon was born in Oberlin, Ohio.  He was raised in Watertown, Oswego, Dansville and Rochester, New York, where his father worked as a newspaper editor.  Bragdon’s principal work was in the Rochester area.  He was well regarded for his ink rendering talent and his study of geometric ornament.  He was […]

Mathew B. Brady (1822 - 1896)

Photographer. He was born in Warren City, New York. He had studied painting before being attracted to the photographic process of Louis Daguerre. He opened a portrait studio in New York during the 1840s, utilizing the improved daguerreotype. Eventually he also set up a studio in Washington D.C., where his cameras caught the images of […]

Hilary Joyce Bradshaw (1916 - 2009)

British Fashion Artist. She was considered the last of her line; artisans who rendered the designs of the day with ink and paint, rather than thru photography. Miss Bradshaw was born into an upper class Scottish family, but her father, a prominent sportsman, abandoned his wife and children when young Hilary was a toddler. (Told […]

Robert Brackman (1898 - 1980)

Artist and teacher, emigrated from Russia in 1908 and studied at the National Academy of Design from 1919 to 1921, and the Ferrer School in San Francisco. Best known for large figural works, portraits, and still lifes. From 1931, he had a long career teaching at the Art Students League in New York and was […]

Patricia Collinge Collinge (1892 - 1974)

Actress. Born in Dublin, Ireland, she performed on the London stage before coming to America in 1908 and continued her stage career as Broadway cast performer in many shows. She made her feature film debut in “The Little Foxes” (1941) and was nominated the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. Her other screen credits included […]

Penleigh Boyd (1890 - 1923)

Painter. He was born in Wetsbury, England, but spent most of his life in Australia,  where he developed into one of the country’s leading painters of his time.  His works include “The Old Bridge, Warrandyte”, “The Breath of Spring”, “Wattle Blossom”, “Spring Fantasy”, “Twixt Shadow and Shine”, and “Salvage”. He was killed in a car […]

Teodoro Alberto Bourse Herrera (1914 - 1997)

Artist. A painter, sculptor, humorist, his works are exposed in all of Latin America. He also illustrated many books, including the “Diccionario Lunfardo” (1978).

Louise Bourgeois (1911 - 2010)

Artist. As a painter and more notably as a sculptor, she created a long series of semi-abstract yet expressive works that many consider erotic or disturbing. Bourgeois was raised in Paris by a well-off family that sold and repaired tapestries, and with whom she had conflicted relations that were to be manifested in her work. […]

Antoine Bourdelle (1861 - 1929)

French Sculptor. He left school at the age of 13 to work as a wood carver in his father’s cabinet making shop. He learned drawing with the founder of the Ingres Museum in Montauban, then sculpture at the art school in Toulouse. At the age of 24 he won a scholarship to the Ecoles des […]

Napoléon Bourassa (1827 - 1916)

Artist, Author, Teacher. Born in Sainte-Marguerite, Quebec, he had extensive schooling for his time. He studied under the Sulpicians in Montreal for eleven years and took 18 months of private lessons with a painter. Bourassa also spent more than three years in Europe further developing his artistic abilities. Early in his career, he worked primarily […]

Paula Murad Coburn (1955 - 2004)

Actress. A native of Jamaica, Coburn was born Paula Murad, later moving to Cleveland, Ohio, with her parents, and then to Washington, D.C., where she was educated and then became host of the television series, “Real Estate Digest.” She later decided to further her acting career and she moved to Hollywood, California, where she met […]

Henry Brintell Bounetheau (1797 - 1877)

Painter. Became known as painter of miniature portraits. He painted subjects including Charles C. Pinckney, Nathanael Greene, William Ravenel, and Charles A. Pringle. (bio by: Laurie)

William Bouguereau (1825 - 1905)

Artist. He was France’s most popular painter of the late 1800s. A leader of the Academic School, Bouguereau specialized in carefully detailed mythological and genre scenes, and was particularly noted for his tender portrayals of children. “The Abduction of Psyche” (1895) is probably his best-known work.  Today many critics dismiss his style as kitsch and […]

Elizabeth Gardner Bouguereau (1837 - 1922)

Artist. She was the first woman to exhibit a painting at the world-famous Paris Salon, and the first American woman to be awarded a gold medal by the French Academy. Her forte was domestic scenes featuring women and children, lovingly detailed in the Academic manner. Elizabeth Jane Gardner was born in Exeter,  New Hampshire,  and […]

Thomas Bouch (1822 - 1880)

Engineer.  A specialist in railway design,  he is credited with inventing caissons and train ferries. His notoriety,  however, rests on the original Tay Bridge in Dundee,  Scotland,  completed in 1878.  It collapsed during high winds on December 28,  1879,  killing 75 people.  An investigation concluded in terms that the bridge was badly designed,  badly constructed, […]

Sandro Botticelli (1445 - 1510)

Artist. He was a contemporary of famed artist Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni and Renaissance man Leonardo da Vinci, and his considered one of the best painters of the 15th century period of art and culture in Italy known as the “Quattrocento”. He was pupil of painter Filippo Lippi and worked for the House of […]

Henry Peter Bosse (1844 - 1903)

Photographer. As a draughtsman for the United States Army Corps of Engineers, he took many photographs of the Mississippi River. These photos were discovered in 1990, and a collection was sold by Sotheby’s for $60,000. In Sotheby’s 1995 photographic catalogue, the discovery of his work was proclaimed the most important discovery of 1990. His photos […]