Paul Soleillet was a French explorer in West Africa and Ethiopia.
He was a strong believer in opening up Africa to trade through peaceful means, and thus bringing the benefits of French civilization to the natives while gaining commercial profits for France.
Cover of an 1886 L'Univers illustré issue dedicated to the recently deceased Soleillet
Ahmadou Sekou Tall c.1865 by Camille Pietri
Soleillet in Obock in 1882
Bust of Soleillet in Nîmes, later moved and then melted down
Jean Nicolas Arthur Rimbaud was a French poet known for his transgressive and surreal themes and for his influence on modern literature and arts, prefiguring surrealism. Born in Charleville, he started writing at a very young age and excelled as a student, but abandoned his formal education in his teenage years to run away to Paris amidst the Franco-Prussian War. During his late adolescence and early adulthood, he produced the bulk of his literary output. Rimbaud completely stopped writing literature at age 20 after assembling his last major work, Illuminations.
Rimbaud on the day of his First Communion
Plaque erected on the centenary of Rimbaud's death at the place where he was shot and wounded by Verlaine in Brussels
By the table, an 1872 painting by Henri Fantin-Latour. Verlaine is on the far left and Rimbaud is at the second to left.
Rimbaud (self-portrait) in Harar, Ethiopia in 1883.
