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Comment by happytoexplain | Hacker News Reader

Isn't the trivia that he only sold one painting during his life (where I assume the definition of "sell" includes paid commissions), and it was to his brother? Are you saying that is true, but he was popular as an artist (just not successful financially as an artist)? Or is that bit of trivia also untrue?

Edit: It occurs to me that also implicit in this popular definition of "successful artist" is that the majority of other well known artists were financially successful via their art, but I don't know if that's even true!

Edit: The parent was edited after I made this comment to be more explicit about financial success vs reputational success.

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History is full of artists (whether painters, musicians, writers, etc.) who were known and respected by their peers, but failed to get much traction with the general public, and particularly with people who would pay money for their work, during their lifetime.

Are there some good examples of living artists/creatives who fit this description? I'd love to take a look.

Willis Alan Ramsey is an example of a musician who is really admired by musicians but not very well known.

I came across a video of him on a YouTube journey one time, and really respected his performance, but I completely forgot his name and never came across him again until now, to your point.

Just listened to some of his work on youtube - awesome! thanks for sharing.

Sure thing!

He might not have sold many paintings, but after he died by suicide Monet saw Irises (I think) and remarked something like "How can someone who paints with such joy be so sad". Selling art requires the right contacts, even today, and Vincent was unable to attract the right connections. If he had not shot himself, I think within a few years he would have been as famous as Monet.

His brother was a successful art dealer and helped Vincent out and believed in him, but wasn't able to get much traction with his work. He was pretty well connected in this way. However, he wasn't liked (Vincent) by many people and struggled to build valuable connections with other artists, etc. due to his awful personality, which was in large part due to his mental illness I'd assume.

His brothers wife (his brother died from syphilis shortly after him) ended up with all his work and believed in it too. She was able to impress other with it and held a large show featuring his work a few years after his death and this is how he came into prominence.

> Selling art requires the right contacts, even today

I was talking to a friend of mine who is a reasonably famous and financially successful modern impressionist painter about the market selling his oil paintings. It’s more than just the right contacts, the entire thing sounds more awful than used car sales, honestly. Lots of game playing, politics, back stabbing, and scamming. Just asking him what I figured would be a straightforward question of what kind of percentage commission galleries charge led to about on hour long conversation that I could barely follow.

The short version seemed to be that if you’re naive or trusting, you’re screwed.

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