What Makes A Painter Be Remembered As Truly Great?

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What Makes A Painter Be Remembered As Truly Great?
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• Few artists over the centuries managed to achieve
  fame both during their lifetime, and in the wake
  of their death, in the way that Leonardo Da Vinci
  did. All too often, artists were viewed with
  scepticism or simply disliked for their style of
  work when they were alive, finding fame only when
  their work came to be appreciated by more forward
  thinking, modern minds, years after their passing.

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• Artists who achieved fame both during, and after,
  their lifetime
• Talented at painting and drawing, Da Vinci was
  also a highly skilled mathematician, inventor and
  scientist apprenticed to a great painter at the
  time, he was often commissioned to paint nobility
  and clergymen, with his success later attributed
  to this. Having painted the Mona Lisa now one
  of the most famous paintings in the world and
  with 2003 novel The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown
  having launched the artist into the annuls of
  popular culture, he is undeniably one of the top
  painters of all time, and remembered as being one
  of the true greats of the art world.

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• One other artist who became famous while he was
  still alive is Michaelangelo, who is perhaps best
  known for his painting of the Sistine Chapels
  ceiling a work which took him four years to
  complete it. in fact, so popular was
  Michaelangelo during his lifetime that while he
  was still alive, two biographies were scribed
  about him.
• Artists who struggled to be appreciated when
  alive
• But there were plenty of artists who struggled
  during their lifetime, both in their personal and
  working lives, and who only gained fame once they
  had died. Vincent Van Gogh, for example, became
  famous only after his death, when exhibitions to
  commemorate him were held in places like Paris,
  The Hague and

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• Brussels. Later, when an art critic wrote an
  article about him, praising his artistic vision,
  and when the artists letters were subsequently
  published at the beginning of the 20th century,
  his work started to become an inspiration for
  other artists, and of course today, he is
  considered as being one of the worlds greatest
  painters by many.
• Monet was another artist who was deeply
  underappreciated during his lifetime, with people
  not understanding his style of painting, and many
  simply not liking the type of non-traditional
  paintings he produced.

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• Of the great artists in history, Picasso is
  another name we are all familiar with, and who is
  undeniably more popular now, than when he was
  alive. Although he gained fame slowly throughout
  his life, and was able to start turning a profit
  from his work not long into his career when a
  well-known art collector became interested in
  him, it wasnt until some years after is death
  that he came to be viewed as such a trailblazer
  in the arts.

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• Modern artists still alive today
• Arguably one of the most famous artists still
  alive and working today, street artist Banksy has
  managed to gain fame and notoriety without ever
  having to reveal his identity. Beginning his art
  career in the 1990s, Banksy used graffiti to
  illustrate anti-capitalist and anti-establishment
  messages. With his work often found in public
  spaces, they, and the artist, quickly gained a
  lot of attention, and when combined with the fact
  that nobody knew who he was, his work began to
  fetch huge prices at auctions.
• With disputes commonly occurring as to who owns a
  piece of his artwork when it appears on a
  property, he has undoubtedly become one of the
  most famous artists of all time.

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• But what makes an artist become famous?
• Whether their rise to fame is slow and
  understated, takes place while theyre still
  alive, or happens only after theyve died, its
  safe to say that truly great artists who are
  still remembered today, tend to be innovators
  with great imaginations.
• While there is no magic formula for becoming a
  great painter, and fame is never guaranteed, it
  seems that if youre willing to break some
  boundaries and explore ideas not always popular
  at the time, fame may well await you.