Robert Jacques François Faust Lefèvre was a French painter of portraits, history paintings and religious paintings. He was influenced by Jacques-Louis David and his style is reminiscent of the antique. Robert Lefèvre made his first drawings on the papers of a procureur to whom his father had apprenticed him. With his parents' consent, he abandoned this apprenticeship and walked from Caen to Paris to become a student of Jean-Baptiste Regnault. At the 1791 Paris Salon he exhibited his Dame en velours noir, the point of departure for his reputation. In 1805, Lefèvre painted the portrait of Empress Joséphine, in 1807 a matching portrait of Napoléon was painted by Louis-André-Gabriel Bouchet. Napoléon gave both paintings to the city of Aachen in 1807, where they are today in the city hall and decorate the entrance hall, his other portraits of Napoleon, Joséphine, Madame Laetitia, Guérin, Carle Vernet and pope Pius VII made him a fashionable portrait artist and one of the main portraitists of the imperial personalities, a reputation sealed by his portrait of Napoleon's new wife Marie Louise.
On the Bourbon Restoration Robert Lefèvre painted a portrait of Louis XVIII for the Chambre des Pairs and received the cross of the Légion d'honneur and the title of First Painter to the King, losing the latter on the July Revolution. He painted a large number of portraits and history paintings; the main example of his portraits are those of Malherbe, Charles X, the duchesse d’Angoulême, the duchesse de Berry, Charles-Pierre-François Augereau duc de Castiglione, of Dominique Vivant Denon. Two of his mythological paintings - Love sharpening his arrows and Love disarmed by Venus, were engraved by Desnoyers - the latter is reproduced in le Nu Ancien et Moderne, his most notable history paintings are his Phocion getting ready to drink hemlock, Roger delivering Angélique, Héloïse and Abelard and a Crucifixion for the Mont Valérien. His last painting was The Apotheosis of Saint Louis for the Cathedral of La Rochelle. While he was working on this last painting, the Revolution of July 1830 took place, an event, to deprive him of his support and official posts.
Ill and desperate, he committed suicide by cutting his own throat at his house on the night of 2/3 October 1830. He was buried in Paris. Gaston Lavalley, Le Peintre Robert Lefèvre, sa vie et son œuvre, Caen, L. Jouan. Mémoires de la Société des sciences, arts et Belles-Lettres de Bayeux, 1901, p. 121-2 Robert Jacques Lefèvre dans la base joconde
Bandiagara is a small town and urban commune in the Mopti Region of Mali. The name translates to "large eating bowl"—referring to the communal bowl meals are served in. Bandiagara is 65 km east-southeast of Mopti. A seasonal river, the Yamé, flows in a northeasterly direction through the town; the population includes a number of different ethnic groups including Dogons and Bambaras. Bandiagara is said to have been founded in 1770 by a Dogon hunter. In 1864, Tidiani Tall, El Hadj Umar Tall's nephew and successor, chose Bandiagara as capital of the Toucouleur empire, it is the birthplace of Madina Ly-Tall and Yambo Ouologuem. In the music video for the song Reset by Three Trapped Tigers it is shown as the location of an alien rune; as of 2018 the town remains insecure with attacks on hotels used by UN staff being reported. Bandiagara Escarpment Ounjougou Union of the Populations of Bandiagara This article was based on the corresponding article in the French Wikipedia, accessed April 9, 2005. Additional reference was made to this article on Dec. 14, 2006.
B. O. Oloruntimeehin; the Segu Tukulor Empire. Humanities Press, New York. SBN 391002066 UNESCO site about the Cliff of Bandiagara Dogon Country
Rockville is a former city in Delaware County, United States. Bordering Dubuque County within the North Fork Township, it was 3 miles northwest of Worthington and 1.5 miles west of today's Iowa Highway 136. Rockville was founded in 1845 by Oliver A. Olmstead. Second only to Delhi, it was one of the oldest towns in Delaware County; the area served as an important trading point and included a sawmill, a gristmill, a blacksmith and various stores. Predating Rockville's establishment, a log schoolhouse was built in 1843; this would be rebuilt in brick after burning down ten years after its founding. During this era, Rockville served as a stagecoach stop for those heading west of the Mississippi River; the Rockville post office opened June 15, 1846 with Olmstead serving as postmaster, a hotel was opened for travelers of the Western Stage Company. The town's popularity saw Charles W. Hobbs, one of the first settlers in Delhi, relocating to Rockville in 1850. Hobbs subsequently opened a store which found great success.
However, Rockville's prosperity would not last in the face of its developing neighbors. The town's proverbial death knell came not long after the Dubuque and Pacific Railroad Company began building rails in the newly formed town of Dyersville. Rockville's post office closed for the second and final time on May 31, 1898; as Delhi and Dyersville grew, the town's role as a stagecoach declined and would vanish by the end of the 19th century. Today, the area is recognized as a rural area on the outskirts of Worthington. Remnants of its history can be seen in Rockville Cemetery, which includes veterans of the Civil and Mexican Wars, the nearby remains of an old mill, which resides at the North Fork of the Maquoketa River; the hilly area, still traversed by gravel roads, now consists of farms and woodland. Rockville is located at 42°25′7″N 91°8′32″W, at an elevation of 925 feet