The Most Famous
ARTISTS from France
This page contains a list of the greatest French Artists. The pantheon dataset contains 78 Artists, 5 of which were born in France. This makes France the birth place of the 5th most number of Artists behind United Kingdom and Japan.
Top 5
The following people are considered by Pantheon to be the most legendary French Artists of all time. This list of famous French Artists is sorted by HPI (Historical Popularity Index), a metric that aggregates information on a biography’s online popularity.
1. Marcel Duchamp (1887 - 1968)
With an HPI of 76.23, Marcel Duchamp is the most famous French Artist. His biography has been translated into 73 different languages on wikipedia.
Henri-Robert-Marcel Duchamp (UK: , US: , French: [maʁsɛl dyʃɑ̃]; 28 July 1887 – 2 October 1968) was a French painter, sculptor, chess player, and writer whose work is associated with Cubism, Dada, and conceptual art. He is commonly regarded, along with Pablo Picasso and Henri Matisse, as one of the three artists who helped to define the revolutionary developments in the plastic arts in the opening decades of the 20th century, responsible for significant developments in painting and sculpture. He has had an immense impact on 20th- and 21st-century art, and a seminal influence on the development of conceptual art. By the time of World War I, he had rejected the work of many of his fellow artists (such as Henri Matisse) as "retinal", intended only to please the eye. Instead, he wanted to use art to serve the mind.
2. Jean Arp (1886 - 1966)
With an HPI of 69.83, Jean Arp is the 2nd most famous French Artist. His biography has been translated into 48 different languages.
Hans Peter Wilhelm Arp (16 September 1886 – 7 June 1966), better known as Jean Arp in English, was a German-French sculptor, painter and poet. He was known as a Dadaist and an abstract artist.
3. Yves Klein (1928 - 1962)
With an HPI of 68.63, Yves Klein is the 3rd most famous French Artist. His biography has been translated into 41 different languages.
Yves Klein (French pronunciation: [iv klɛ̃]; 28 April 1928 – 6 June 1962) was a French artist and an important figure in post-war European art. He was a leading member of the French artistic movement of Nouveau réalisme founded in 1960 by art critic Pierre Restany. Klein was a pioneer in the development of performance art, and is seen as an inspiration to and as a forerunner of minimal art, as well as pop art. He is known for the development and use of International Klein Blue.
4. Émile Gallé (1846 - 1904)
With an HPI of 61.96, Émile Gallé is the 4th most famous French Artist. His biography has been translated into 23 different languages.
Émile Gallé (French pronunciation: [emil ɡale]; 4 May 1846 in Nancy – 23 September 1904 in Nancy) was a French artist and designer who worked in glass, and is considered to be one of the major innovators in the French Art Nouveau movement. He was noted for his designs of Art Nouveau glass art and Art Nouveau furniture, and was a founder of the École de Nancy or Nancy School, a movement of design in the city of Nancy, France.
5. André Charles Boulle (1642 - 1732)
With an HPI of 59.07, André Charles Boulle is the 5th most famous French Artist. His biography has been translated into 22 different languages.
André-Charles Boulle (11 November 1642 – 29 February 1732), le joailler du meuble (the "furniture jeweller"), became the most famous French cabinetmaker and the preeminent artist in the field of marquetry, also known as "inlay". Boulle was "the most remarkable of all French cabinetmakers". Jean-Baptiste Colbert (29 August 1619 – 6 September 1683) recommended him to Louis XIV of France, the "Sun King" (r. 1643–1715), as "the most skilled craftsman in his profession". Over the centuries since his death, his name and that of his family has become associated with the art he perfected, the inlay of tortoiseshell, brass and pewter into ebony. It has become known as Boulle work, and the École Boulle (founded in 1886), a college of fine arts and crafts and applied arts in Paris, continues today to bear testimony to his enduring art, the art of inlay.
Pantheon has 5 people classified as artists born between 1642 and 1928. Of these 5, none of them are still alive today. The most famous deceased artists include Marcel Duchamp, Jean Arp, and Yves Klein.
Deceased Artists
Go to all Rankings
Marcel Duchamp
1887 - 1968
HPI: 76.23
Jean Arp
1886 - 1966
HPI: 69.83
Yves Klein
1928 - 1962
HPI: 68.63
Émile Gallé
1846 - 1904
HPI: 61.96
André Charles Boulle
1642 - 1732
HPI: 59.07
Which Artists were alive at the same time? This visualization shows the lifespans of the 4 most globally memorable Artists since 1700.
