Famous French People

Like most countries in the world, France has scores of famous people, many of whom have become historical figures. These famous French people are representative of the country’s ethos and values. They define their nation’s culture and display to the world the best qualities of their country. Ranging from artists to authors to fashion designers to political philosophers to architects to musicians to scientists… here is an account of some of the most famous French people who made a mark both in their own country as well as the world.

Jean-Jacques Rousseau: He lived between 1712-1778, and was a philosopher as well as a composer during the movement in Europe known as the Enlightenment. Rousseau’s political ideas were highly influential on the French Revolution, the formation of socialist and liberal theory, and the development of nationalism. His writings, like the Confessions, influenced various thinkers like Hegel, Freud, and so on. Julie, ou la nouvelle Héloïse, which was a novel written by Rousseau, was an instant best-seller not only in France but also in other parts of Europe, which played an important role in the development of romanticism. Rousseau was also a composer as well as a theorist of music.

Napoléon Bonaparte: A towering figure amongst famous French people, Napoleon Bonaparte, who lived between 1769-1821, was a French general and then later became the Emperor of France due to the consequences of the French Revolution. He introduced several measures which are still the basis of many French institutions that exist today such as a law that decreed setting up lyces, or state grammar schools, with the aim of providing well-trained civilians and army officers. France was continuously at war while Napoleon ruled, and the empire he built was huge. By the year 1812, Napoleon had the major part of Western Europe under his control. He was finally defeated when the British, Austrian, Prussian, and Russian armies invaded France. Napoleon was then exiled to the island of Elba from where he escaped and then went on to rule France once again, which lasted for a hundred days, when he was defeated at Waterloo by Wellington. Napoleon was then sent to St. Helena as a prisoner. He died there in 1821.

Honoré de Balzac: He was a novelist as well as a playwright who lived during the 19th century, between the years 1799 to 1850. His best piece of writing consisted of a sequence of about 100 plays and novels, which were entitled collectively as La Comédie Humaine, which is a representation of a panoramic view of French life during the years as well as after the fall of Napoleon. Due to Balzac’s keen powers of observation of the minutest details as well as the stark depiction of society, he is considered to be one of the pioneers of realism in European literature. His writing had an influential effect on various other famous French writers such as Gustave Flaubertt, Emile Zola, and Marcel Proust, as well as other famous authors like Jack Kerouac, Henry James, and Charles Dickens. Blazac’s works continue to be an inspiration to many writers and many of them have been made into films.

Claude Monet: Living between 1840 and 1926, Claude Monet was one of the pioneers of the impressionist painting style in France. Plus, he was the most prolific and consistent practitioner of the philosophy of this movement, which basically is about depicting nature according to one’s impression of it, particularly when depicting plein-air landscape painting. In fact, the very term ‘Impressionism’ has been derived from a painting of his named ‘Impression, Sunrise.’ One of Claude Monet’s most famous paintings is ‘Water Lilies’, which he created in his own garden that he had designed himself.

Claude-Achille Debussy: He was a famous French composer who lived between 1862 to 1918. The musical style that was developed by Debussy, which included exploring new harmonic relationships as well as dissonances, was often called Impressionist music. His compositions made use of the entire tonal scale, instead of being limited to the traditional scale used in Western music. In fact, it was his music that was definitive as the transformation from the latter part of the Romantic style to the modernistic style of the 20th century. He is particularly famous for his well-known piano pieces like Suite Bergamasque, which contains the exquisite Clair de lune, The Children’s Corner, and Estampes.

Marie and Pierre Curie: Marie, who lived between 1867 to 1934, and Pierre, from 1859 to 1906, were scientists who became famous for their ground-breaking work in the field of radioactivity. Born in Poland, Marie Curie made her way to Paris in 1891 in order to study science. It was in the famous Sorbonne University, where she was a laboratory assistant, that she met Pierre, who later became her husband. Both of them worked together to isolate radium and polonium, which were unknown radioactive elements. It was in 1903 that the Curies got the Nobel Prize for physics. Since the radium that they had produced at that time was a compound, they decided to make the pure form of it. Pierre was killed in an accident on the street in 1906, and thereafter Marie continued the scientific work by herself. She was the first French woman to achieve the high academic honor of becoming a physics professor at Sorbonne. She was awarded a second Nobel Prize when she was successful in making a small amount of the pure form of radium.

Alexandre Gustave Eiffel: He was an engineer who lived between 1832 to 1923, and was famous for designing and constructing the Eiffel Tower in 1889. At the time it was constructed, it was the world’s tallest structure. In recognition of this achievement, Gustave Eiffel was awarded the Legion of Honor medal. Although it was at first meant to be a temporary structure, but because of its immense popularity it still stands tall today and has become one of the most evocative symbols of Paris. Gustave Eiffel also built a railway bridge in southern France, which was the tallest one in the world for many years, and he also was the designer of the Statue of Liberty’s framework, a gift given to New York by France.

Pierre Cardin: One of the most famous French fashion designers, Pierre Cardin was born in 1922 to French parents in Italy. Cardin is particularly famous for his space age designer wear as well as his avant-garde style. He made Paris his home in 1945. Often choosing to ignore the female form, he had a penchant for creating geometric motifs and shapes. In fact, he is regarded as the first fashion designer to take fashion into the street, and design unisex clothing. He has also been at the helm of affairs of the famous restaurant, Maxim’s de Paris, and has an entire range of secondary products under this trademark.