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Introduction   Cast of Characters   Reviews & Awards  Activities    Lives of

Introduction

Can it be dangerous to he neighbor to an artist? Neighbors of artists have risked ear damage — from enduring the same song blaring one hundred times in a row (Warhol) or early-morning violin serenades issuing from the bathroom (Matisse). Even worse, neighbors are apt to end up in a work of art, displayed for posterity as models, willing or not. Those close to artists have been portrayed with a pig's snout (Cassatt), shocked to find themselves in the midst of great historical or biblical events (Rembrandt), and immortalized in the ultimate pose — as corpses (Leonardo da Vinci).

Yet the element of danger cuts both ways. Neighbors have indeed dodged paintings hurled from an artist’s window (Chagall). But artists have had stones thrown at their windows by neighbors protesting a turbulent lifestyle (Picasso). Neighbors have been mystified by weird shadows radiating from an artist’s darkened rooms (Michelangelo), and at their most superstitious, they’ve suspected an artist of witchcraft (O’Keeffe). Savvy neighbors might have sneered to realize that the more money an artist spends, the less he has (Dali), but savvy artists have thwarted inquisitiveness by buying adjoining lots to keep neighbors at a distance (Kahlo and Rivera). Neighbors have been known to protect artists from Nazi persecution (Kollwitz), but they’ve also banded together to run an artist out of town (Van Gogh). And in terms of sheer quantity, perhaps no one can claim as many neighbors as restless artists, especially when they move themselves and their families a total of ninety-three times (Hokusai).

Much careful research later, it turns out that perhaps no cultural figures have inspired more gossip than artists. (Reputations can be so singular that some artists, such as Rembrandt, need only a single name to identify them.) Why this occurs is a subject of controversy. Are artists—and their works—simply more noticeable?

In any case, the twenty artists in this book had interesting lives and interesting neighbors. Here, guided by their patron saint, are their stories, full of masterpieces and messes, offered now as a way to know them— and their artworks.

                                              --Kathleen Krull

Text copyright © by Kathleen Krull.  Published by Harcourt, Inc. and reproduced with permission.  All rights reserved.

All “Lives of” artwork copyright © by Kathryn Hewitt.  Published by Harcourt, Inc. and reproduced with permission.  All rights reserved.

Introduction    Cast of Characters    Reviews & Awards    Activities