On becoming an artist...

John Sloan in Gist of Art, 1939

"Though a living cannot be made at art, art makes life worth living. It makes living, living. It makes starving, living. It makes worry, it makes trouble, it makes a life that would be barren of everything -- living. It brings life to life." *Sloan

Sloan was wise in defusing the glamour and cutting to the core.

Emile Zola to Cézanne, 30 December 1859

"When you take up your brushes: 'my son, my son,' says your father, 'think of the future. One dies with genius, and one eats with money.' Ah! Unfortunately, my poor Cézanne, life is a billiard ball which does not always roll where the hand would like to push it..." *

Emile Zola to Cézanne, 16 April, 1860

"there are two men inside the artist, the poet and the craftsman. One is born a poet. One becomes a craftsman..." *

Paul Cézanne to Emile Bernard, 25 July 1904

"Don't be an art critic, but paint, there lies salvation." *

He wasn't the first to be unsparing to critics...

Encouragement...

Paul Cézanne to Louis Aurenche, 10 March 1902

"A little bit of confidence in yourself and work. Don't ever forget your art, sic itur ad astra." [trans: 'thus one reaches the stars'] *

Robert Henri in The Art Spirit, 1923

"Don't worry about the rejections. Everybody that's good has gone through it. Don't let it matter if your works are not 'accepted' at once. The better or more personal you are the less likely they are of acceptance. Just remember that the object of painting pictures in not simply to get them in exhibitions. It is all very fine to have your pictures hung, but you are painting for yourself, not for the jury. I had many years of rejections." *Henri

Frustration...

Vincent Van Gogh to his brother Theo, 22 October 1882

"What is drawing? How does one come to it? It is working through an invisible iron wall that seems to stand between what one feels and what one can do. How is one to get through that wall -- since pounding at it is of no use? In my opinion one has to undermine that wall, filing through it steadily and patiently."*

Paul Klee in his diary, 1901, Entry 152

"At times I fancied I knew how to draw, at times saw that I knew nothing. During the third winter I even realized that I probably never would learn how to paint. I thought of sculpture and started engraving. I have always been on good terms with music. *

Thankfully, Klee persevered through his early frustration.

John Sloan in Gist of Art, 1939

"Every good picture leaves the painter eager to start again, unsatisfied, inspired by the rich mine in which he is working, hoping for more energy, more vitality, more time -- condemned to painting for life."*

Independence...

John Sloan (undated, referring to Henri and himself)

"We came to the realistic conclusion that an artist who wanted to be independent must expect to make a living separate from the pictures painted for his own pleasure. We could attack the art academies and public taste with freedom honestly earned." *Loughery

Eugene Delacroix in his Journal, 28 April 1852

"The Carracci and their pupils had the monopoly of fame, and had become dictators of glory, that is to say they praised only what resembled their own work and used all the authority of their position as the leaders of the reigning fashion to plot against anything that tended to break out of the ordinary rut..." *

This, of course, has gone on throughout time, whether one is referring to the juries of the Salon versus the Impressionists or the National Academy of Design versus the new American Realists (Henri and crew).

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