Historical Figures from Paris

Painter · 1840 – 1926

Claude Monet was a French painter and the leading founder of Impressionism, whose studies of light and atmosphere — from Impression, Sunrise to the Water Lilies — revolutionized modern painting.

• Impressionism
• Impression, Sunrise

Novelist · 1871 – 1922

Marcel Proust was a French novelist whose monumental seven-volume In Search of Lost Time is one of the most celebrated novels of the 20th century, transforming fiction with its exploration of memory, time and consciousness.

• In Search of Lost Time
• Involuntary memory

Playwright · 1622 – 1673

Molière was a French playwright and actor of the 17th century, the supreme master of comedy in the French language, whose satires of hypocrisy and vanity remain among the most performed plays in the world.

• Tartuffe
• The Misanthrope

Writer · 1694 – 1778

Voltaire was a French Enlightenment writer, philosopher and wit, a tireless champion of reason, free speech and religious tolerance and one of the most influential figures of his age.

• Candide
• Defending free speech and tolerance