Molière Molière Jean-Baptiste Poquelin, known by his stage name Molière (; ; 15 January 162217 February 1673), was a French playwright, actor and poet, widely regarded as one of the greatest writers in the French language and universal literature. His extant works includes comedies, farces, tragicomedies, comédie-ballets, and more. His plays have been translated into every major living language and are performed at the Comédie-Française more often than those of any other playwright today. His influence is such that the French language itself is often referred to as the "language of Molière". Born into a prosperous family and having studied at
Jean-Baptiste Oudry in a travelling exhibition in the United States, 1983, encouraged a reassessment of this purely French portraitist and genre painter. Jean-Baptiste Oudry Jean-Baptiste Oudry (; 17 March 1686 – 30 April 1755) was a French Rococo painter, engraver, and tapestry designer. He is particularly well known for his naturalistic pictures of animals and his hunt pieces depicting game. Jean-Baptiste Oudry was born in Paris, the son of Jacques Oudry, a painter and art dealer, and his wife Nicole Papillon, relative of the engraver Jean-Baptiste-Michel Papillon. His father was a director of the "Académie de St-Luc" art school, which Oudry joined.