Complicated Histories of Artists at the Norton Simon

Masters and Monsters: The Complicated Biographies of Artists at the Norton Simon

Just a few minutes walk from Sequoyah’s high school, the Norton Simon Museum has an extensive collection of art, spanning the 14th to 20th centuries, from all parts of the world. From Rembrandt to Renoir to Monet, Kazinsky, Picasso, and Albers, there’s a never-ending maze of galleries that makes the Norton Simon an incredibly fulfilling after-school pastime. However, the artists who create glamorous portraits of aristocrats and flowers have other tales that ought to be told. In this article, I bring to light some of the not-so-picturesque images of artists at the Norton Simon.

Pablo Picasso, born October 25, 1881, in Málaga, Spain, is one of the most widely recognized names in art. On view at the Norton Simon, Picasso’s work consists mainly of lithographs, some oil paintings, and one or two sculptures. There’s a continuous list of dramatic and rather frightening things I could tell you about Picasso, but we’ll have to keep the list fairly short for now. For one thing, Picasso was undoubtedly a “womanizer,” with eight major relationships and countless other mistresses. These relationships included Fernande Olivier, Eva Gouel, Olga Khokhlova, Marie-Thérèse Walter, Dora Maar, Françoise Gilot, Genevieve Laporte, and Jacqueline Roque. Within many of these often overlapping relationships, Picasso was abusive and torturous. His relationship with Marie-Thérèse Walter started when she was 17 and living in a flat across from his home, where he lived with his second wife, Russian ballerina Olga Khokhlova. Later, when Khokhlova found out about their relationship, he refused to officially separate from her, so she wouldn’t receive half of his wealth. Then, only a year after having a child with Walter, he fell in love with Dora Maar. Walter’s familiar face is featured in the 20th-century collection with the other abstracts, in an oil titled “Woman with a Book.” Though the piece was painted in 1932, four years before Picasso moved on to Dora Maar, the expression on her face is one of glum disinterest. It’s not hard for the viewer to imagine how their relationship might have been.

Born March 30, 1853, in Zundert, Netherlands, Vincent van Gogh is often regarded one of the most prolific artists of all time. He was also one who had nothing short of a soap opera-esque life. Over the span of his ten-year career, the Dutchman composed almost 900 paintings and even more works on paper (This amounts to 90 paintings a year, or one painting every four to five days). His works on view at the Norton Simon are mostly oils but include one autographed letter. The most recognizable paintings include “Portrait of a Peasant,” “The Mulberry Tree,” and “Portrait of the Artist’s Mother.” During a five-year span, Van Gogh had a total of four major relationships, each with their own intriguing and often disturbing stories. The first of these four was Kee Vos-Stricker, Van Gogh’s very own cousin. During the summer of Van Gogh’s twenty-eighth birthday, he stayed with his parents at their house in Etten, which also happened to be housing his newly-widowed cousin, Kee Vos-Stricker. However, this short romantic interest was decidedly one-sided, as Stricker’s answer to his confession of love was a curt “no, nay, never.” His next lover was three years older than him, a pregnant prostitute by the name of Sien Hoornik, already with a young child. Their love, according to Van Gogh, grew from a shared unhappiness, one between two “unfortunates.” Perhaps this was a sign that this relationship was doomed from the beginning; their relationship ended a year and a half after it started following pressure and disapproval from Van Gogh’s family. The next in his line of unfortunate lovers was Margot Begemann, his across-the-street neighbor, 12 years older than he. After Van Gogh’s proposal of marriage to Begemann was met with a great deal of disapproval from both his and her family members, Begemann attempted to kill herself with a dose of poison; she survived, but their engagement was called off shortly thereafter. Finally, Van Gogh dated Agostina Segatori, an Italian who owned a restaurant in France. The relationship ended only a few months after it began, and by the end of 1887 Van Gogh had declared his contempt for romantic relationships, choosing instead to focus on his “requited love” of art. Near December of 1888, Van Gogh had a tumultuous breakdown in which he cut off his own ear with a razor. By 1890, Vincent van Gogh committed suicide and brought his prolific art career to a close.

Whether or not Edgar Degas was a misogynist (he often equated women to animals, which is most likely why he remained a bachelor his whole life), there was certainly something strange about his obsession with the young women (or sometimes girls) of the Paris Opera Ballet. Born on July 19, 1824, in France, Degas created 1,500 paintings of the ballet alone. Some examples of these paintings, on view at the Norton Simon currently, include “Dancers in the Wings,” “The Star: Dancer on Pointe,” and “Little Dancer, Aged Fourteen.” One could simply dismiss his obsession for an artistic desire to capture motion and pretty things; what better place to do that than at the ballet? But the implications of his paintings run a little deeper once given historical context. The Paris Opera Ballet was an art form for the wealthy, founded in 1669 by King Louis XIV. The young ballerinas of Paris often came from a very low social class and were encouraged to use ballet as a way to climb the social ladder. To make Degas’ obsession just a little bit creepier, there was a room called Foyer de la Danse in which the patrons of the Ballet (usually old, wealthy men) were allowed to interact with the ballerinas. Usually, patrons would pick a ballerina in the room to fund, and the ballerina was generally expected to become the patron’s mistress in return. Consequently, the Foyer de la Danse became a place where sex work thrived. Later in life, Degas became one of these patrons.

One of Degas’ most controversial works was “Little Dancer, Aged Fourteen,” a wax, life-sized statue displaying a ‘petit rat’ by the name of Marie van Goethem. In order to create the sculpture, Degas asked the fourteen-year-old Van Goethem to model nude for him. A replica of the piece is on view at the Norton Simon currently.

While enjoying the art of these masters is rewarding, it is also important to look past the glorified works that most often come to mind, even if that sometimes means that the art becomes too repulsive to stomach. The solution, although different for everyone depending on values and life experiences, is not necessarily to “cancel” these artists by neglecting to view their work. That solution ultimately puts even more attention on the artists, rather than spotlighting other artists whose work has been minimized because of the problematic actions of these masters. For instance, rather than make a spectacle of ignoring the work of Pablo Picasso, we can choose to focus on the work of Françoise Gilot instead, a very talented artist in her own right who doesn't really get the recognition she might deserve. This way, we can empower the voices that have been silenced, while also acknowledging the situations that silenced them.