Struggling artists with brilliant minds have been recognized often too late. Going bankrupt and having to sell their pieces for scraps, while after they died their works went under the hammer for millions. This is what the life of most famous artists looked like. Today, we take a look at our top 4 of artists who became famous after their death.
Top 4 artists who became famous after their death
Vincent Van Gogh
Vincent Van Gogh is a well known name in nowadays culture, but the Dutch post-impressionist painter that is known for cutting of his ear had a good reason to be depressed. Over the course of his life Vincent Van Gogh only sold one painting for approximately 100 dollars. His works itself only got famous around 1910, which was 20 years after his death. His tragic death and failure in life made him a misunderstood genius and the romantic ideal for tortured artists.
Emily Dickinson
As an American poet who influenced a lot of artists, it is sad to say the Emily Dickinson only became famous after her death. Partly, we can say this is due to her shyness and her reluctance to socialize. On the other hand, we can also clearly see that the poems she did publish were violently altered to fit the frame of mind of that time. Even after her death, it lasted until 1955 before her work was published without any alterations. That her work was published even at all after her death we have to thank her younger sister Lavina for.
Pardon my sanity in a world insane
By Emily Dickinson
Johannes Vermeer
Johannes Vermeer was a Dutch Baroque painter from the 17th Century. He did make a living as a painter but was not known outside of Delft. It is said that his financial struggles were the reason he died. Vermeer was best known for domestic scenes of middle-class life and has a total of 34 pieces that are recognised as his. Even though Vermeer only became famous in the 19th Century, his mastery of pigment and light in his painting is still a technique that is studied by artists today.
Stieg Larsson
One of the artists that became famous more recently was Stieg Larsson. In Sweden he was widely recognised as a journalist, however, the world got to know him as the brilliant author of the Millenium trilogy. Larsson had always had a love for writing and co-wrote stories in the science-fiction genre. As for his journalist work, he was the foremost expert of extreme right groups and exposed many racist political groups which also made him a target. He died, however, of a heart attack on November 9th in 2004. His Millenium Trilogy had already been fully written but not yet published when he died. He had even made notes as far as a tenth book for the series. Unfortunately for us, Stieg Larsson’s death came way too soon.
Armaggedon was yesterday, today we have a serious problem.
by Stieg Larsson