Image via Complex Original
The starving artist is a stereotype that has infected the psyche of the public. The common idea is that to pursue a career in visual art is akin to signing an agreement to live on Ramen noodles and baked beans for the rest of your days. Even if you achieve success, it won't be until long after you're gone. If you're lucky, maybe your grandchildren will receive a few bucks for your hard work.
Is the concept of the unrecognized artist a self-reinforcing idea? Many famous artists have achieved fame and fortune before passing into the next dimension, among them Pablo Picasso, Salvador Dalí, and Michelangelo. What did they do to achieve such recognition in their lifetimes? Read on to find out which famous creatives made our list of 20 Artists Who Got Rich Before They Died.
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Georgia O'Keeffe
Georgia O'Keeffe's famous macro paintings are inspired by New Mexico's desert landscape, which she fell in love with at the age of 42. The artist eventually stopped painting once her vision deteriorated. After O'Keeffe's death, her estate was worth $65 million, mostly from her assets of paintings and land.
Salvador Dalí
Though Dalí's Surreal works seem to rise above the market, the artist was not above capitalizing on his paintings. Dalí's hunger for wealth earned him the nickname "Avida Dollars," a title given to him by the poet André Brenton and an anagram for Dalí's name that means "eager for cash." Dalí spent his cash on luxuries as eccentric as his persona. He lived in a castle with his wife and a pet anteater.
Ansel Adams
Ansel Adams is known for working primarily in black and white and for the grand American vistas portrayed in his photographs. His studio was located in the middle of Yosemite National Park on land that his wife inherited.
Adams' reputation began to rise when wealthy families hired him to take their portraits. Mid-way through his career, Adams' prints were selling for $5,000 apiece, and the Department of Interior commissioned him to create a photo series of the National Parks. In 1980, Adams received the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
Andy Warhol
Warhol's silkscreens of Campbell's soup cans and multicolored Marilyn Monroe prints are recognizable worldwide, so much so that they allowed him amass a great fortune. Warhol was worth $228 million when he died.
Richard Avedon
Richard Avedon was a fashion photographer who held a $1 million annual contract at Vogue before leaving the company in 1990 to pursue freelance work and his own artistic vision. Towards the end of his life, Avedon sold his lavish Montauk estate and moved into a mansion on the Upper East Side of New York that sold for $11.4 million after his death.
Damien Hirst
Damien Hirst rose to fame with his collection of animals preserved in formaldehyde, most notably the shark entitled, The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living. He's been the subject of controversy due to alleged plagiarism and because of animal rights issues, such as one exhibit that involved the massacre of thousands of butterflies. Bad press hasn't held him back, however. Today Hirst is considered the richest living artist.
Balthus
French artist Balthasar Klossowski's first artistic work, a series of drawings of his cat, was published when he was only 13. From there, Balthus was vaulted to international success. He and his wife, Setsko, lived for a time in a French castle, named Chateau de Chassy, and later in an 18th-century Swiss mansion. On his last birthday, he threw a party that was attended by Tony Curtis, U2, and a remaining member of the Russian dynasty.
Jasper Johns
Still alive and creating work, pop artist Jasper Johns' most famous piece is Flag. Twice he broke the record for most expensive piece of art sold by a living artist: first in 1980 for $1 million, and second in 1988 for $7.05 million. Currently, Johns' net worth is estimated at $210 million.
Francis Bacon
Celebrated British artist Francis Bacon spent a good portion of the last two decades of his life hanging out with a young, illiterate bartender by the name of John Edwards. Edwards became the model for at least 30 of Bacon's portraits and his closest confidante. Bacon left his entire $17 million estate to Edwards in his will.
Willem de Kooning
Willem de Kooning was born in the Netherlands and came to New York after World War I, where he had his first artistic success painting murals for the 1939 World's Fair. He became a prominent figure in the Abstract Expressionism movement. After his death in 1997, he left an estate worth almost $150 million.
Mark Rothko
Months after Rothko's gristly suicide, his wife died of a sudden heart attack. Their two children, Kate and Christopher, not only were left orphaned but they had to fight a years-long legal battle over the estate's assets, which consisted of 798 paintings at an estimated worth of $32 million. Finally, nearly a decade after the painter's death, his children won the case and were awarded his fortune, while the Marlborough Gallery was fined for money laundering.
Michelangelo
Michelangelo produced an incredible amount of paintings, statues, poems, and architecture during his career as a Renaissance man. He created such famous works as the Pieta and the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. Michelangelo left an estate of 50,000 florins, which is equivalent to about $57 million, making him by far the richest artist of his time. Historians speculate that he was a scrooge, too.
Rembrandt
Rembrandt painted during the Dutch Golden Age of art in the 17th century. At the pinnacle of his wealth, historians estimate that Rembrandt was making between 25,000 and 30,000 guilders per year, which is equivalent to between $350,000-$400,000 today. He also had a Dutch townhouse and an extensive collection of art that he collected almost compulsively. Due to poor spending habits, later in his life Rembrandt was forced to declare bankruptcy and lost his wealth, his house, and his art collection.
Pablo Picasso
Picasso spent years at the beginning of his career learning to paint in a classical style before he began the experimental style of Cubism that he is so widely known for. Picasso was incredibly prolific, with a career that lasted over 70 years; some say he is the most successful artist of the 20th century. At the time of his death, his net worth was estimated to be $50 million.