Scoundrels, Cads, and Other Great Artists

by Jeffrey K. Smith

Scoundrels, Cads, and Other Great Artists examines the lives of 12 great artists who were less than exemplary human beings in their lives outside of their art. It explores the question, "Why do we like magnificent art from artists who were awful human beings?" For example, the great Baroque painter, Caravaggio, who developed the chiaroscuro style of painting, was in constant trouble with the law, even having killed a man in a dual. Frederick Remington, the great painter of the American West, was an incredible racist and ... Read More

Scoundrels, Cads, and Other Great Artists examines the lives of 12 great artists who were less than exemplary human beings in their lives outside of their art. It explores the question, "Why do we like magnificent art from artists who were awful human beings?" For example, the great Baroque painter, Caravaggio, who developed the chiaroscuro style of painting, was in constant trouble with the law, even having killed a man in a dual. Frederick Remington, the great painter of the American West, was an incredible racist and bigot. His evocative paintings of native Americans on the trail on horseback give no hint of Remington's enmity toward them or other ethnic groups in America. John James Audubon? He mostly shot the birds he painted; if in doing so, he damaged a part that he wanted to paint, he shot another one. Whistler and Courbet were philanderers and libertines. Scoundrels introduces people to great art by showing the more salacious side of the personal lives of great artists over time. The book not only tells the stories of a dozen artists, but explores how to look at art and the separation between art and artist. This lively narrative is enhanced by over 100 full-color reproductions of great paintings and details from them. Read Less