Morticom strange and unusual stories of artists

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WEIRD ART

TRIVIA

(25 ENTRIES)

1)
Painter Van Gogh only sold one painting during his entire lifetime. The painting was called "Red Vineyard At Arles".

2)
Painter Vincent Van Gogh used to teach languages and mathematics at a school in Ramsgate, London, England.

3)
Sculptor Leonardo was once commissioned to do a statue of Francesco Sforza, the father of his patron, Ludovico Sforza, but he never completed the bronze casting. Later when French soldiers invaded Milan at the end of the 15th century, bowmen used the unfinished model for target practice and in doing so totally destroyed it.

4)
Painter Paul Gauguin once worked as a labourer during the building of the Panama Canal.

5)
French artist Louis Girodet preferred to paint during the night time hours. He would stick up to 40 candles on the brim of his hat and light them all so he could see. He used to charge people according to the amount of candles he used while painting a picture.

6)
The painting "Whistler's Mother" was once sold in a pawn shop.

7)
Painter Vincent Van Gogh painted a picture every day for the last 70 days of his life.

8)
Painter Renoir was so badly stricken by rheumatism in the final months of his life that the only way he could paint was by strapping a brush to his hand.

9)
If you ever see a statue of someone riding a horse and the horse has both legs in the air, it means that the person died during a battle. If the horse has one front leg in the air then it means the rider died from his wounds after a battle and if the horse has both feet on the ground the rider died of natural causes.

10)
Painter Matisse once had his painting "Le Bateau" displayed in the Museum of Modern Art, New York, USA. It took 47 days before anyone noticed that the painting had been hung upside down.

11)
The ancient Greek statue "The Venus De Milo" was found by a peasant who was digging his land.

12)
Painter Pablo Picasso was once so impressed with the artistic talent of a chimpanzee named Congo in the 1950's that he bought one of his paintings.

13)
Painter Pablo Picasso completed 23 of his major paintings in one month in 1936. In all he produced over 20,000 pieces of work during his career.

14)
Artist Leonardo da Vinci was ambidextrous and he could paint with one hand while he drew with the other. One of his lesser known inventions was the stink bomb.

15)
Artist and humourist Edward Lear loved his pet cat so much that when he moved to Italy he had an exact replica of his previous house built so that the cat would feel instantly at home.

16)
In England, in 1998, artist, Anthony-Noel Kelly, a cousin of the Duke of Norfolk, was arrested by the Organised Crime Squad after it was found he had been using body parts in his artwork. He had taken many casts of dead bodies and when police raided his studio many body parts were found.
A police officer later said, "It was sickening. Just because you've got royal connections doesn't mean you can mess with real human bodies!"

18)
Leonardo Da Vinci was totally convinced that there were canals leading from the lungs directly to the sexual organs.

19)
In 1894 the National Gallery in England turned down the opportunity of buying a great Titian painting because it showed too much flesh.

20)
During the making of an art TV documentary in 1952 the producers were forced to take out a shot of a nude Boticelli because the censor deemed it to be offensive.

21)
According to surveys carried out in art galleries across the world the most popular artist of all time is Picasso.

22)
When the Mona Lisa was stolen in 1911 six Americans each paid $300,000 for what they thought they were sure was the real thing.

23)
There have been more statues attributed to the Greek sculptor Praxiteles than he could have actually produced during his lifetime.

24)
Ballerinas often use as many as three pairs of shoes during a single performance of a ballet because they wear them out so quickly.

25)
Artist Pablo Picasso was abandoned by his long time lover Francoise Gilot because he was continually having affairs with other women.
Picasso was in his eighties at this time.