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Quiz about Starving for Art Is it Palatable
Quiz about Starving for Art Is it Palatable

Starving for Art: Is it Palatable? Quiz


Ever wondered what famous artists did before they became established? Not all starved in a garret. See if you can work out how some tried to eke out a living outside of painting. Some broad brush stokes should point you along the way.

A multiple-choice quiz by skumma. Estimated time: 5 mins.
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Author
skumma
Time
5 mins
Type
Multiple Choice
Quiz #
313,714
Updated
Mar 21 22
# Qns
10
Difficulty
Average
Avg Score
7 / 10
Plays
741
Awards
Top 20% Quiz
- -
Question 1 of 10
1. Young Vincent Van Gogh had a totally different ambition to being a suffering artist: he wanted to be a pastor, like his father. He did manage to get a post as a missionary, but alienated his superiors by bringing disgrace (as they saw it) on to the Church. What awful thing did he do? Hint


Question 2 of 10
2. After a brief and inauspicious spell at West Point, this artist tried his hand at map making for the US Coastal Service. He didn't last long! However, he maintained that the knowledge of etching which he gained served him well in his future artistic career. His mother actually wanted him to be a clergyman. Hint


Question 3 of 10
3. This Liverpool born artist worked for his father in the leather trade. Perhaps this early (loose) connection with saddlery gave George Stubbs his lifelong interest in painting these, his most famous subjects. What were they?
Hint


Question 4 of 10
4. This French artist was not born into poverty. His father was a judge and wanted him to pursue a career in law. Then he persuaded him to try for the Navy, but fortunately for art, he failed the examinations twice. His father then encouraged him to take up a career as a painter. This artist is often confused with his contemporary. Who was this 'Olympian' of Impressionism?
Hint


Question 5 of 10
5. This English artist had perhaps the most unusual method of supporting his work: he was an inmate in an asylum for the criminally insane. Believing his father was the devil, he stabbed and killed him. At first he was kept at Bedlam then moved to the newly built Broadmoor where he lived until his death. The Chief Psychiatrists involved with his care actively encouraged him to paint, and some of his best work was done there. Who was this "Fairy Feller" ?
Hint


Question 6 of 10
6. This French artist, a great friend of Manet, studied law for a time. However, his father noticed that he spent more time studying paintings in the Louvre than his law books. Thanks to the encouragement of this wise man we can now see studies of ballet dancers, horses and lively sculptures. Who was this painter? Hint


Question 7 of 10
7. This well loved Englishman is probably better known for his verses than his art. However, this former draughtsman for the Zoological Society became an artist for the British Museum. Later he was employed by the Earl of Derby to paint watercolours of exotic birds and animals in his home at Knowsley Hall.
Who was this nonsensical genius?
Hint


Question 8 of 10
8. This particular fellow stands out from his contemporaries as never achieving success in his lifetime, despite generous financial support from friends and family. Known forever as one half of an engaged couple, which noted landscape artist never made it until a year after his death? Hint


Question 9 of 10
9. In 1879 this Nordic artist enrolled in a technical college to study engineering. He excelled in chemistry, physics and maths. He was often ill and after one year he left to pursue a career in painting, much to his father's disapproval. Which artist made his father scream in anger? Hint


Question 10 of 10
10. Aubrey Beardsley, an English artist of the Art Nouveau period, was known for the decadence of his work. Strange that his earlier employment should sound so cautious and restrained. What was it? Hint



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Quiz Answer Key and Fun Facts
1. Young Vincent Van Gogh had a totally different ambition to being a suffering artist: he wanted to be a pastor, like his father. He did manage to get a post as a missionary, but alienated his superiors by bringing disgrace (as they saw it) on to the Church. What awful thing did he do?

Answer: Gave away all his clothing and possessions to the poor

In the winter of 1879-80 he gave his best clothing, bedding and other possessions away to others whom he felt needed them more than he. The Church authorities were appalled by this (not least because he was showing them up) and accused him of taking too literally the teachings of Christ! He became disillusioned by this and took to painting.
2. After a brief and inauspicious spell at West Point, this artist tried his hand at map making for the US Coastal Service. He didn't last long! However, he maintained that the knowledge of etching which he gained served him well in his future artistic career. His mother actually wanted him to be a clergyman.

Answer: James McNeil Whistler

Whistler famously sued John Ruskin, the art critic. In 1877, Ruskin wrote a review of an exhibition at the Grosvenor Gallery which included Whistler's work. He singled out 'Nocturne in Black and Gold: The Falling Rocket': 'I have seen, and heard, much of Cockney impudence before now; but never expected to hear a coxcomb ask two hundred guineas for flinging a pot of paint in the public's face', he wrote. Whistler, affronted, sued for libel, demanding £1,000.

He won the case and was awarded damages of one farthing, that is a quarter of a penny.
3. This Liverpool born artist worked for his father in the leather trade. Perhaps this early (loose) connection with saddlery gave George Stubbs his lifelong interest in painting these, his most famous subjects. What were they?

Answer: Horses

Thereafter, as an artist, he was self-taught. In the 1740s he worked as a portrait painter in the North of England and from about 1745 to 1751 he studied human anatomy at York County Hospital. He had had a passion for anatomy from his childhood, and one of his earliest surviving works is a set of illustrations for a textbook on midwifery which was published in 1751.

His later studies of horse anatomy provided the skill to make one of the greatest equine artists in the world.
4. This French artist was not born into poverty. His father was a judge and wanted him to pursue a career in law. Then he persuaded him to try for the Navy, but fortunately for art, he failed the examinations twice. His father then encouraged him to take up a career as a painter. This artist is often confused with his contemporary. Who was this 'Olympian' of Impressionism?

Answer: Edouard Manet

Manet became great friends with the author Emil Zola, who supported the Impressionist movement. Manet's portrait of the writer cheekily includes a miniature of his famous work, L'Olympia in the background.
5. This English artist had perhaps the most unusual method of supporting his work: he was an inmate in an asylum for the criminally insane. Believing his father was the devil, he stabbed and killed him. At first he was kept at Bedlam then moved to the newly built Broadmoor where he lived until his death. The Chief Psychiatrists involved with his care actively encouraged him to paint, and some of his best work was done there. Who was this "Fairy Feller" ?

Answer: Richard Dadd

Poor Dadd! In 1987, BBC1 Antiques Roadshow expert, Peter Nahum, identified a painting brought in by a Barnstable couple as 'Halt in the Desert', lost for over 100 years. It was authenticated and sold for £100,000 pounds. The irony was the couple had only turned up because they were walking their dog and thought they'd take it along as well. Neither of them liked it nor had any idea of what it was.
6. This French artist, a great friend of Manet, studied law for a time. However, his father noticed that he spent more time studying paintings in the Louvre than his law books. Thanks to the encouragement of this wise man we can now see studies of ballet dancers, horses and lively sculptures. Who was this painter?

Answer: Edgar Degas

Towards the end of his life, Degas , who was going blind, found sculpting was easier.
One of his best-known and loved sculptures is the 'Petite Danseuse de Quartorze Ans' ('The Little Dancer, Aged Fourteen', 1880-1881, in the Tate Gallery, London). Degas emphasised the lifelike quality of the wax figure by giving her a real satin hair ribbon and a proper, little gauze tutu. This was one of his sculptures which was later cast in bronze after his death.
7. This well loved Englishman is probably better known for his verses than his art. However, this former draughtsman for the Zoological Society became an artist for the British Museum. Later he was employed by the Earl of Derby to paint watercolours of exotic birds and animals in his home at Knowsley Hall. Who was this nonsensical genius?

Answer: Edward Lear

The 13th Earl of Derby was a great supporter of Lear and the writer dedicated his first 'Book of Nonsense' to the children and grandchildren of the peer. Interestingly, in the foreward to his second book, Lear relates a conversation with an elderly gentleman on a train.

The man has just been reading the book and comes to the conclusion that the Earl of Derby is the author because his first name is Edward and Lear is an anagram of Earl.
8. This particular fellow stands out from his contemporaries as never achieving success in his lifetime, despite generous financial support from friends and family. Known forever as one half of an engaged couple, which noted landscape artist never made it until a year after his death?

Answer: Alfred Sisley

"Flood at Port-Marly" fetched a high price when sold in 1900 to Count Isaac de Camondo. Sisley and his wife posed for the painting 'The Engaged Couple, or the Sisley family" by Auguste Renoir.
9. In 1879 this Nordic artist enrolled in a technical college to study engineering. He excelled in chemistry, physics and maths. He was often ill and after one year he left to pursue a career in painting, much to his father's disapproval. Which artist made his father scream in anger?

Answer: Edvard Munch

His best known, most iconic work is "The Scream". These are Munch's own words expressing what he felt about the painting;

"I was walking down the road with two friends when the sun set; suddenly, the sky turned as red as blood. I stopped and leaned against the fence, feeling unspeakably tired. Tongues of fire and blood stretched over the bluish black fjord. My friends went on walking, while I lagged behind, shivering with fear. Then I heard the enormous, infinite scream of nature."
10. Aubrey Beardsley, an English artist of the Art Nouveau period, was known for the decadence of his work. Strange that his earlier employment should sound so cautious and restrained. What was it?

Answer: The Guardian Life and Insurance Company

Beardsley illustrated Oscar Wilde's play 'Salome'. Most of his work usually reproduced for the High Street would never frighten the horses. He enjoyed a bit of a revival in the late 1960's-70's - mainly with hippies like me!
Source: Author skumma

This quiz was reviewed by FunTrivia editor bloomsby before going online.
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