1904 in France
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| See also: | Other events of 1904 History of France • Timeline • Years | ||||
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Events from the year 1904 in France.
Events
- 8 April - Entente cordiale, a series of agreements signed between the United Kingdom and France.
Arts and literature
The unofficial art mouvement of Fauvism (Fauves is the French word for "wild beasts"). Henri Matisse (1869-1954) was the leader of the small group, with other major artists including André Derain (1880-1954) and maurice de Vlaminick (1876-1958). The mouvement was never made official with documents signed by members of a list of criteria in order for work to be considered Fauvism, but it was simply a small group of mainly French painters who used brilliant colour and unexpected brushstrokes, similar to the German Expressionism mouvement. Matisse created the Fauve style after experimenting with post-impressionistic painters, such as Gauguin, Cézanne and Van Gogh, as well as the NEo-impressionism of Cross, Signac, and Seurat. All these painters inspired Matisse to reject 3D uses of spaces and use colour and mouvement to create 2D planes of space.
Sport
- 2 July - The second Tour de France begins.
- 24 July - Tour de France ends, won by Henri Cornet.
Births
January to March
- 13 January - Jean de Beaumont, sport shooter (died 2002).
- 14 January - Henri-Georges Adam, engraver and sculptor (died 1967).
- 15 February - Louis Robert, historian and author (died 1985).
- 27 February - André Leducq, cyclist, twice Tour de France winner (died 1980).
- 1 March - Paul Dubreil, mathematician (died 1994).
- 13 March - René Dumont, agronomist, sociologist and environmental politician (died 2001).
April to June
- 8 April - Yves Congar, priest and theologian (died 1995)
- 12 April - Arsène Alancourt, cyclist (died 1965)
- 21 April - Jean Hélion, painter and author (died 1987)
- 25 April - René Cogny, General (died 1968)
- 17 May - Jean Gabin, actor (died 1976)
- 18 May - François Marty, Roman Catholic Cardinal (died 1994)
- 19 May - Daniel Guérin, anarchist and author (died 1988)
- 25 May - Marcel Thil, world champion boxer (died 1968)
- 8 June - Jean-Jérôme Adam, Roman Catholic Archbishop of Libreville (died 1981)
- 11 June - Gaston Charlot, chemist (died 1994)
July to September
- 2 July - René Lacoste, tennis player (died 1996)
- 8 July - Henri Cartan, mathematician.
- 24 July - Leo Arnaud, composer of film scores (died 1991)
- 4 September - Christian-Jaque, filmmaker (died 1994)
- 7 September - Henri Pinault, Roman Catholic Bishop of Chengdu (died 1987)
- 18 September - Jean Dasté, actor and theatre director (died 1994)
October to December
- 8 October - Yves Giraud-Cabantous, motor racing driver (died 1973)
- 13 October - Antoine Gilles Menier, businessman and municipal politician (died 1967)
- 14 October - Christian Pineau, French Resistance leader and politician (died 1995)
- 12 November - Jacques Tourneur, film director (died 1977)
- 22 November - Louis Néel, physicist, the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1970 (died 2000)
- 6 December - Ève Curie, author and writer, daughter of Marie and Pierre Curie (died 2007)
- 12 December - Nicolas de Gunzburg, magazine editor (died 1981)
- 21 December - Jean René Bazaine, painter, stained glass window designer and writer (died 2001)
- 31 December - Charles Fauvel, aircraft designer (died 1979)
Full date unknown
- Pierre Allain, climber (died 2000)
- Jean Berveiller, composer and organist (died 1976)
- Gabriel Loire, stained glass artist (died 1996)
- Henri-Irénée Marrou, historian (died 1977)
- Raymond Molinier, Trotskyist (died 1994)
- Pierre Naville, writer and sociologist (died 1993)
- Georges Sadoul, journalist and cinema writer (died 1967)
Deaths
- 10 January - Jean-Léon Gérôme, painter and sculptor (born 1824)
- 26 January - Émile Deschanel, author and politician (born 1819)
- 19 May - Auguste Molinier, historian (born 1851)
- 27 June - Anatole Jean-Baptiste Antoine de Barthélemy, archaeologist and numismatist (born 1821)
- 25 August - Henri Fantin-Latour, painter and lithographer (born 1836)
- 23 September - Émile Gallé, artist (born 1846)
- 4 October - Frédéric Bartholdi, sculptor, designer of the Statue of Liberty (born 1834)
Full date unknown
- Marie Firmin Bocourt, zoologist and artist (born 1819)
- Paul Adolphe Marie Prosper Granier de Cassagnac, journalist and politician (born 1843)