François Lays
François Lay, better known under the stage name Lays (14 February 1758 – 30 March 1831), was a French baritone and tenor opera singer. Originally destined for a career in the church, Lays was recruited by the Paris Opéra in 1779. He soon became a leading member of the company, in spite of quarrels with the management. Lays enthusiastically welcomed the French Revolution and became involved in politics with the encouragement of his friend Bertrand Barère. Barère's downfall led to Lays being imprisoned briefly, but he soon won back the public and secured the patronage of Napoleon, at whose coronation and second wedding he sang. This association with the Emperor caused him trouble when the Bourbon monarchy was restored and Lays's final years were darkened by disputes over his pension, mounting debts, the death of his only son and his wife's illness. After a career spanning more than four decades, he died in poverty.
François Lanzi
He was born in Ajaccio, Corsica, on 5 July 1916, to Laurent Lanzi and Clementine Sartoni. He had one older sister Clara Lanzi, the social activist and two brothers, one of whom was the composer Leon Preger. Moving from Corsica to Paris as a child, he later studied under Professeur Guillot de Raffaillac. He joined the French army at the beginning of World War II but was soon captured by the Germans and interred in various prisoner of war camps in Ukraine (Rawa-Ruska (Рава-Руська), Tarnopol (Тернопіль) and Tremblowla (Теребовля) ) and (Germany) (divers). Despite escaping on a number of occasions he nevertheless spent almost 5 years as a prisoner, which undoubtedly affected the way he was to develop his painting. He was requested by one of the guards, who knew him to be an artist, to draw some pornographic pictures. According to his war memoirs, the guard was suitably impressed by their realism and in return gave him cigarettes and bread. After the war, he taught and exhibited in Paris. In 1954, he moved to London, where he married Nora Egremont-Lee (née Henderson). In London, he exhibited at the Redfern Gallery (1958), the RBA Gallery (1959,1960), the AIA gallery (1960,1961) and the Savage Gallery (1960,1961). He also had a solo exhibition at the Stone Gallery (Newcastle) in 1961. In addition to painting, he also worked for several years for the framemakers and carvers, Robert Savage Ltd., where a number of well-known artists had also worked. After Savage closed his business in 1971 François Lanzi moved to Chiddingfold in Surrey until his death. Although he had lived in England many years (thirty-four in total at his death), his command of the English language was always very limited and he became somewhat withdrawn from the society around him. During his period in Chiddingfold, François Lanzi was re-discovered by the critic and gallery owner, Michael Budd. His paintings were exhibited in The Gallery (Knaphill) for a number of years. François Lanzi died in Guildford, Surrey on 13 November 1988. His marriage to Nora was childless, and she died on 3 June 2002.