Columbia Encyclopedia

(Encyclopedia) Dubuffet, Jean zhäN dübüfāˈ [key], 1901–85, French painter and sculptor. Rejecting academic art training, Dubuffet divided his time during the 1920s and 30s between art and the wine business. I...

(Encyclopedia) Houdon, Jean-Antoine zhäN-äNtwänˈ o͞odôNˈ [key], 1741–1828, French neoclassical sculptor. He studied with Michel Ange Slodtz, Lemoyne, and Pigalle, took the Prix de Rome at the age of 20, and...

(Encyclopedia) Macdonald, Jacques Étienne Joseph Alexandre zhäk ātyĕnˈzhôzĕfˈ älĕksäNˈdrə mäkdônälˈ [key], 1765–1840, marshal of France, of Scottish descent. He distinguished himself in the French...

(Encyclopedia) social contract, agreement or covenant by which men are said to have abandoned the “state of nature” to form the society in which they now live. The theory of such a contract, first formulated by ...

(Encyclopedia) Marat, Jean Paul zhäN pōl märäˈ [key], 1743–93, French revolutionary, b. Switzerland. He studied medicine in England, acquired some repute as a doctor in London and Paris, and wrote scientific ...

(Encyclopedia) Collot d'Herbois, Jean Marie zhäN märēˈ kōlōˈ dĕrbwäˈ [key], 1750–96, French revolutionary, originally an actor and playwright. Although a member of his Jacobin club, he favored a constitu...

(Encyclopedia) Tirole, Jean Marcel, 1953–, French economist, Ph.D. Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1981. He was a professor of at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (1984–91) and École Polytechniq...

(Encyclopedia) Billaud-Varenne, Jean Nicolas zhäk nēkōläˈ bēyōˈ-värĕnˈ [key], 1756–1819, French revolutionary. A violent antimonarchist in the Convention, the revolutionary national assembly, he and Jea...

(Encyclopedia) Chrétien, Jean (Joseph Jacques Jean Chrétien) zhōsĕfˈ zhäk zhäN krātyăNˈ [key], 1934–, Canadian politician and prime minister (1993–2003), b. Quebec. He received his legal education at Q...

(Encyclopedia) Amyot, Jacques zhäk ämyōˈ [key], 1513–93, French humanist, translator of Heliodorus' Aethiopica (1547), of Longus' Daphnis and Chloë (1559), and particularly of Plutarch's Lives (1559). ...