Many famous artists received completely unusual fees for their paintings, which, in general, seemed to satisfy them quite well. Right now, wealthy collectors are willing to pay millions of dollars for paintings by renowned masters like Aivazovsky, Van Gogh, or Niko Pirosmani, while during the artists' lifetimes, their demands were much more modest, though not always. In this article, we will discuss how clients settled their payments with the artists of their paintings.
Ivan Aivazovsky in 1840, when he had only recently graduated from the Academy of Arts, exhibited his paintings in Italy with great success. Journalists and art critics wrote with enthusiasm about his works: "No one has ever been able to depict the sea, air, and light so convincingly." In a way, the works of Aivazovsky, like those of William Turner, anticipated the emergence of the first Impressionist paintings and served as a source of inspiration for them.
Ivan Aivazovsky. Chaos. Creation of the world.
His painting "Chaos. Creation of the world" was bought by the Pope. However, there were assumptions that Aivazovsky simply gifted this canvas – a very far-sighted decision, since all the other clients will gladly buy the works of the artist whose painting was appreciated by the Pontiff. Wealthy nobles could afford to commission a painting directly from Aivazovsky, while common people had to settle for reproductions.
But even the nobles sometimes paid Aivazovsky in quite an original way. He was a modest man, without unnecessary self-esteem, so he did not consider it disgraceful to accept payment in the form of sausage that was produced at the enterprise owned by the relative of the painting's client. Aivazovsky was simply a true gourmet, loved to eat, and logically reasoned that why buy good sausage for a fee when he could get it directly from the client, bypassing all kinds of middlemen.
The Battle of Chesma on the night of June 25-26, 1770
Aivazovsky was, unlike many artists, a very practical man, could count money and generally combined often completely different traits in his character. Anton Chekhov later wrote about Aivazovsky: "in him there is a general, an archiereus, an Armenian, an artist, a naive grandfather, and even Othello." Truly, a true genius and successful person should be versatile, and closing only in painting often ends tragically for the artist himself.
And here is Niko Pirosmani - an example of an artist practically opposite to the successful and widely recognized Aivazovsky. He was considered a "blessed painter", treated with condescending contempt, as someone not of this world, and paid for his work with a bottle of wine and a modest meal. Pirosmani painted the walls and signs of tobacco shops in Tiflis and painted on black oilcloth to save on paint.
Niko Pirosmani. Friends of Begos
His paintings in the style of primitivism evoked disdain from many, and only later could people appreciate the charming simplicity and power of these truly extraordinary canvases.
One day, two brash young men came to the studio of the artist Boris Kustodiev and demanded a joint portrait. Kustodiev was a very famous portraitist, having painted the portraits of the emperor, the heir apparent, and renowned artists and cultural figures, which allowed him to choose his clients and paint the portraits of those who interested him. But here were two unknown guys who insisted to Kustodiev that they would soon become celebrities and bring glory to science. They were not lying—these were the future famous scientists Peter Kapitsa and Nikolai Semenov. Later, Kustodiev told his friend Fyodor Shalyapin, "They were so cheerful, self-assured, and young that I had to agree."
Boris Kustodiev. Portrait of Peter Kapitsa and Nikolai Semenov
Kapitsa and Semenov also paid the artist generously - they gave him a sack of millet and a rooster they had received for repairing the mill. It's all about the time when the portrait was painted - 1921. Kustodiev was frankly poor, he could not walk because of health problems, he had lost faith in the Soviet power, but he remained optimistic and earned extra money by creating ideologically correct posters, popular prints and painting scenery for revolutionary plays. The pay in those years was very good - you could make a good soup out of a rooster, and the fact that Kustodiev, in his best years, charged his clients decent money for his work did not matter at all.
The French painter Yves Klein was a real fiddler. He came up with the idea of using human body prints to create paintings, using rain, dust and wind as indispensable assistants - he simply attached a canvas to the roof of a car and set off on a long journey, using his own special blue paint, which he patented.
Yves Klein Leaps into the Void (1960, photo: Harry Shank, Gene Kender)
One of Klein's most original ideas was trading emptiness for gold. He took gold bars from his customers and offered nothing in return, only in the presence of the buyer - not always outright simpletons, just fans of original self-expression on the part of artists - he threw a few gold coins into the Seine, which was supposed to symbolize a tribute to emptiness and vacuum. Well, and the rest of the gold he took for himself for the idea. True, his creative experiments were not in great demand and he earned his living as a judo trainer.
Van Gogh took money for his works, but only if he was lucky and there was a buyer willing to appreciate his paintings. But usually he was paid in kind, especially at the beginning of his career. When he was young and just starting out in painting, he desperately wanted to paint nude models, with some expectation that the lady would be accommodating and the matter would not be limited to just posing. He even specially selected girls of easy virtue for this work. But they posed, but that was all. They did not like his paintings, perhaps because of his reluctance to embellish his models and the widespread use of gray, earthy colors.
Vincent Van Gogh. The Potato Eaters
Then he met the owner of a café, Agostina Segatori. She willingly took Van Gogh's paintings and paid with food or sometimes sent him flowers - not to express admiration, but simply so that the artist, admiring their multicolored beauty, would paint his paintings in brighter colors.
Vincent Van Gogh. Agostina Segatori in the Tambourine Café
However, Van Gogh did not want to change his style. For example, he painted the painting "Night Café" as rent. The owner would have been glad to receive the money, but what can you take from a penniless artist? He had to agree to his terms. The owner stubbornly posed, and all the visitors, seeing Van Gogh setting up his easel, tried to eat quickly and leave as far away as possible. Only the most drunken tramps remained, who had nowhere to go.
Vincent Van Gogh. The Night Cafe
As a result, the painting gives a complete feeling of loneliness and hopelessness, and Van Gogh himself later said: "this is one of my ugliest works."
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