What enables you to say that? Not ‘I am an aspiring artist,’ or any other intermediate or half-way description of your ability to make art, but saying something that makes it clear to you and everyone else that you’re taking stuff seriously. As people get older it can sometimes become more difficult to do so; An established working life, kids or other commitments can leave you treating your artistic habit as a weekend hobby, making it harder to justify what you’re doing.
If you’re one of those people struggling to commit yourself through worries about being too old, here is some inspiration. These five famousartists start late in life, yet went on to be some of the most successful artists in the world.
Vincent Van Gogh
Let’s have the incredibly obvious one first. Van Gogh struggled to gain reputation throughout his life, and died with only a few more fans than he had ears. That being said, ‘The Potato Eaters’ was considered his first major work, being exhibited inThe Hague, Netherlands, in 1885.
First Major Work: The Potato Eaters (1885)
Age: 32
Claude Monet
The founder of French impressionist painting! How’s that for an impressive feat? It is also worth noting that, while 33 may not seem so old to you, the average life expectancy in the 1800s was roughly 40. The French life expectancy in 2014 is 82, putting Monet’s modern-day equivalent in his late 60s.
First Major Work: Impression, Sunrise (1872)
Age: 33
Dr. Suess
A prominent figure in children’s literature who’s books would not be the same without their wacky and imaginative artwork, Theodore Geisel was not published until 33 years of age. The former ad executive was speculated to have been rejected at least 23 times before getting published.
First Major Work: And to Think I Saw It On Mulberry Street (1937)
Age: 33
Paul Cezanne
This post-impressionist painter was regularly rejected by the Paris Salon until 1882, untilPortrait of Louis-Auguste Cézanne, Father of the Artist, reading ‘l’Evénement’, his first and last exhibit in the prestigious salon, was shown. This piece was created in 1866, which goes to show that promoting your work can be, sometimes, tougher that creating it.
First Major Work: Portrait of Louis-Auguste Cézanne, Father of the Artist, reading ‘l’Evénement’(1882)
Age: 43
artist
This landscape and portrait artist claimed to have produced thousands of paintings before his rise to fame in his 30s, and destoyred them all, on the account of not being good enough.
First Major Exhibition: (Alex Katz: Paintings)
Age: 30s
If you’re interested in how you can effectively look at your artistic career later in life, I recommend When Age and Art Converge by Sue Smith, who raises some excellent points.
Jan Davidsz de Heem, a Dutch Golden Age artist born in Utrecht in 1606, is renowned for his exceptional contributions to still life painting. Heem is known for his impressive ability to fill everyday objects with a sense of life with just a paint brush, elevating the painting genre to new heights of realism and beauty.
Claude Monet is a famous impressionist painter in the world. He started his career in his late 70s and continued it for the rest of his life. In fact, after his cataract operation in the 80s, his paintings shifted to deep colors.
In terms of those who lived long lives, there were artists who produced seminal work consistently over the course of their careers–such as Michelangelo who died at 89, Picasso who died at 92, and Wyeth who died at 92–and then others whose most influential or memorable paintings were created toward the end of their life ...
He initially had a career as a poet and novelist before turning to music in his 30s. In high school, he studied poetry and music and taught himself to play acoustic guitar.
The late-style trope takes from romanticism its emphasis on biography, subjectivism, the relationship between creativity and selfhood; from modernism it derives its interest in tradition, the avant-garde, abstraction, the subordination of self to epoch, the loss of linearity.
Gerhard Richter. Gerhard Richter is at the very top of our list—the most famous living painter today. Born in 1932 in Dresden, Germany, Richter currently lives and works in Cologne, Germany. Richter dedicated his career to exploring the medium of painting in close relation to the effects of photography.
Leonardo da Vinci, probably the most important Renaissance artist, is widely recognized as the most famous artist of all time. He's the genius behind the iconic Mona Lisa painting masterpiece, after all.
Michelangelo was considered the greatest living artist in his lifetime, and ever since then he has been held to be one of the greatest artists of all time. A number of his works in painting, sculpture, and architecture rank among the most famous in existence.
Summary: Recent research has shown that engravings in a cave in La Roche-Cotard (France), which has been sealed for thousands of years, were actually made by Neanderthals.
In modern art simple still life arrangements have often been used as a relatively neutral basis for formal experiment, for example by Paul Cézanne, the cubist painters and, later in the twentieth century, by Patrick Caulfield.
A lot of artists don't have their break-through until their early 40's. Since you don't ever retire as an artist, art is one of the few professions you can actually start late in life.
Van Gogh may be the most legendary of the artists we lost too soon. The artist whose works now bring in tens of millions of dollars at auction is said to have sold only one painting in his short life.
Be proud of yourself for your ambition. No, time and age has nothing to do with being a great artist. All you really need is commitment, passion, practice and patience. These skills are very beneficial to all artists but being an artist you will find that your art helps you have more of each of these good skills.
Introduction: My name is Nicola Considine CPA, I am a determined, witty, powerful, brainy, open, smiling, proud person who loves writing and wants to share my knowledge and understanding with you.
We notice you're using an ad blocker
Without advertising income, we can't keep making this site awesome for you.
