Curated playlist
Naturalized citizens of France
- Eugène IonescoEugène Ionesco began a theater revolution by studying an English textbook at age 40.
- Igor StravinskyIgor Stravinsky's ballet The Rite of Spring caused a near-riot at its 1913 Paris premiere.
- Joseph-Louis LagrangeAt seventeen, mathematician Joseph-Louis Lagrange read a paper by Edmond Halley and was seized by mathematics.
- Le CorbusierLe Corbusier built a pavilion around a tree poking through its roof. Furious organizers put up a fence to hide it.
- Marc ChagallMarc Chagall fled Europe in 1941 on a ship carrying 119 refugee children. He taught them drawing.
- Marie CurieMarie Curie's cookbooks are still highly radioactive. They are sealed in lead-lined boxes.
- Jacques OffenbachJacques Offenbach died months before his last opera opened. He told his dog he would give everything to be there.
- Wassily KandinskyWassily Kandinsky quit a law career at age 30 to enroll in an art academy in Munich. He became a pioneer of abstraction.
- Christopher TolkienChristopher Tolkien admitted he had to invent some passages in his father's book The Silmarillion.
- Natalia GoncharovaNatalia Goncharova walked Moscow's streets with painted cheeks, handing out a manifesto.
- Joakim NoahPresident Obama called Joakim Noah's shot the ugliest he had ever seen.