5 Artists Who Wished They Had a Patron
Art has been an integral part of global culture for centuries. Unfortunately, sometimes great minds and geniuses of art fall through the cracks and only make it to the international art stage when society is ready to accept their modernistic approach.
The five great names you will see below could have been even greater, even more inspirational, if they had had support. Financial support to make their boldest ideas come to life, and moral support to not back down in the face of backward thinking critics. If these creators had had access to a community of dedicated supporters and patrons in their lifetime, their fates might have been different. Browse through the short life stories of five critically acclaimed artists who could have succeeded earlier if they had a patron’s backing.
Vincent Van Gogh
Born in 1853 in Zundert, Netherlands, Vincent Van Gogh is one of the most recognized names in the art world today. From the very beginning of his life, Van Gogh struggled with securing the approval of people around him. It began with his parents dismissing his dream to become an artist, despite his uncle being acclaimed artist Anton Mauve.
Van Gogh took lessons from his uncle but never got a formal education in the field. He was actively creating for the better part of his life, but his art was not recognized until after his death.
The genius we nowadays perceive him as, was largely influenced by his tragic death in 1890, at age 37. Because of his story’s harrowing circumstances, Van Gogh became a sensation, and art critics started recognizing his troubled mind as an infinite source of creative genius. Imagine if Van Gogh had the support of the masses back then, as he has it now? His work would have been profoundly influenced, and his creative strides might have reached highs we cannot even imagine.
Henry Darger
Henry Darger was a multi-talented creator born in 1892 in Chicago, Illinois. Darger became internationally famous posthumously when a fiction manuscript he worked on was discovered. The manuscript consisted of fifteen 145-page entries, made up of the text and more than two hundred detailed illustrations. This work’s scope covers various scenes, from innocent-looking depictions of children playing in fields of flowers to horrific drawings of mass murders.
Henry Drager’s creative genius was unrecognized by his contemporaries, which left him struggling for acceptance. He had to work as a hospital custodian and could not afford to dedicate his time to art freely.
Drager only rose to fame when his landlords discovered his work. Nathan and Kiyoko Lerner stumbled upon the manuscripts after the apartment Drager lived in was vacated following his death in 1973. Had they known that Drager was embarking on such a creative journey, they might have been able to support him while he was still alive, and make his art available to a wider audience.
Claude Monet
Oscar-Claude Monet was born in Paris in 1840. Today we recognize him as one of the most influential artists of the Impressionist period. However, during his active years, he was not regarded highly.
Impressionism is one of the most influential art movements, and today a Monet artwork can go for hundreds of millions of dollars. Unfortunately, Monet’s incredible depictions of the French countryside were disregarded by the conservative Académie des Beaux-Arts, which represented the highest artistic critique of the period. The Impressionist movement formed as a protest against the limiting rules set by high-art critics; however, most of Monet’s contemporaries struggled to fund their creative process and sell their art.
Today we view Impressionists as some of the most astonishing creators in history. If they had had the support of a patron back in their day, we could have seen an art revolution twice the size of Impressionism.
Paul Gauguin
Eugène Henri Paul Gauguin was born in Paris in 1848. While he was only a few years younger than Monet and most artists from the Impressionist movement, Gauguin decided to experiment further. His work was later categorized as part of the Post-Impressionist period.
Like many of his contemporaries, Gauguin’s artistic genius was only appreciated years after his death. Today he is recognized for the experimental use of color combinations, as his Synthetist style differentiated his art from traditional Impressionist principles. Gauguin also experimented with sculptures and 3D depictions, which was uncharacteristic for the Impressionist movement.
Paul Gauguin was a fiery individual fighting to correct injustices, which eventually led to his death in 1903. His emotional volatility led him to an addiction to morphine, which ultimately took a toll on his life, however, his artistic legacy will remain immortal. Had Gauguin had the support of a Patron to calm his emotional outbursts, and help him market his works better, we might have been able to enjoy a much more significant collection of his art.
William Blake
Born in London in 1757, William Blake is an internationally recognized painter, poet, and overall creative genius. Today, Blake’s work is considered the cornerstone of Romanticism in terms of both his poetry and his artworks. Unfortunately, to contemporaries, William Blake was a madman because his views and character did not conform to the traditionally held at the time - much like crypto artists are facing backlash from traditional critics today. His quirky personality was what set him apart, and what influenced his creativity, yet critics only recognized this after his death.
William Blake had serious quarrels with his professors at the Royal Academy, who put fashionable painters such as Rubens on a pedestal while disregarding Blake’s innovative approach. Unfortunately, the higher social recognition his professors had meant that Blake’s protest fell on deaf ears. Critics only started recognizing Blake’s talent towards the end of his life when he was commissioned to create a series of engravings accompanying an edition of Dante’s “Divine Comedy”. If Blake had had close supporters his works could have been appreciated decades earlier.
There are so many creators in the world who have amazing ideas, but they're overlooked because of the watchful gaze of the established critics. Luckily, patronage has entered a digital renaissance, where artists and collectors communicate directly and freely and support each other regardless of the opinion of critics.
If you are curious to learn more about art patronage with Minty.Art, you can sign up here.