Master Artists -- Inspired Late Bloomers and Resilient, Active Seniors

Now that I'm retired and in my 60s, I have begun to rejuvenate my career by turning my attention to artful endeavors. For Christmas this year I got a portable easel and plan to do some Plein-air painting when the weather turns warmer. In honor of my own birthday, here are some of my favorite artists whose careers lasted well past retirement age (if that's a thing).

Thunderstorm (1948), Grandma Moses

Perhaps the most famous late bloomer was American Folk Artist, Anna Mary Robertson "Grandma" Moses (1860-1961), although I am less familiar with her actual work. She began her career painting in her late seventies and continued painting and exhibiting her work until the ripe old age of 101. Originally, her work was needlework pictures of life on the farm until arthritis made her try painting. Also known as a primitive artist her work lacked perspective and proportion.

Many of the great master artists I've blogged about lived well into their 70s, 80s, and 90s, remaining artistically active into their old age. Some of their best and most recognizable works came out of a desire to continue making art even as their ability to see or hold a paintbrush diminished. I particularly admire Henri Matisse for his innovative use of paper cutouts in his later Fauvist compositions.

Self-Portrait Between the
Clock and the Bed (1941),
Edvard Munch (at ~78)

Jean-Baptiste-Siméon
Chardin (Cover)

Author, Thomas Dormandy wrote Old Masters: Great Artists in Old Age, including such well-known artists as Matisse and Monet (1840-1926). The book depicts Chardin (1699-1779) on the front and Munch (1863-1944) on the back cover.

Self-Portrait in the Garden, Ekely (1942), Munch

I prefer his later incognito self-portrait (a landscape) to his Van Gogh-like bedroom scene (above). I know it's weird that I'm comparing Munch to Van Gogh, but the use of yellow and blue is at least reminiscent of Van Gogh's bedroom. I also find it amusing that Munch is standing rather straight and his head is aligned with the face of the grandfather clock. His bed looks like a hospital bed; no surprise since he painted a lot of people on their deathbeds.

I recently watched a series of YouTube videos about Monet with my daughter. For my birthday, we intend to participate in a virtual tour of the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam. We also watched the 2017 animated movie, Loving Vincent, in which the young son of a postmaster delivers a letter from Van Gogh (addressed to his now-dead brother Theo) to his friend, Dr. Paul Gachet. During his travels, he investigates the circumstances of Vincent's death. The present-day images are in color using backgrounds painted in Van Gogh's style, while the flashback scenes are in black-and-white. I highly recommend watching this wonderful film with its 65,000 frames.

Some artists who died young, such as Vincent Van Gogh and Jackson Pollock, never experienced old age, though their lives were full of struggle -- mental illness for Van Gogh and alcoholism for Pollock. 

Rembrandt Self-Portrait (1669)

Rembrandt struggled with poverty throughout his life, resorting to painting over 75 self-portraits, including in 1669 at age 63 just prior to his death. 

Taken from the Hindustan Times,
Illustrated by Biswajit Debnath

Edouard Manet only lived to be 51. Renoir made it to 78. Several octogenarian artists -- Degas (83), Matisse (84), Bellini and Monet (86), Titian (88), and Michelangelo (89) -- created art up until their deaths. Incredibly, Picasso (91), Bourgeois, and O'Keeffe (98) remained active in their nineties.

Dancers (1900), Edgar Degas

At the age of 50, Edgar Degas abandoned his typical subjects to study the female figure and painted primarily nudes and ballet dancers until 1912, when his studio was disbanded just 5 years prior to his death. His later works included sculpture and pastel paintings. The underpainting of his Dancers gives it a creepy, almost voyeuristic quality, though the colors blend well into the composition.

Apollo (1953), Henri Matisse

I consider myself lucky to have visited the Matisse Museum in Nice, France in 2011. While on our Baltics cruise in June 2017, we also visited the Moderna Museet in Stockholm Sweden. The star of the show was this large composition by Henri Matisse using his famous cutout shapes, created one year prior to his death.

Nymphéas et Pont Japonais
(1920-24) Monet

The Japanese Bridge
(1896), Monet

You're likely familiar with his Water Lilies series, a subject which appeared in 250 paintings for the last 30 years of Monet's life. Compare his earlier paintings of the Japanese bridge with his final versions painted a few years before his death.

Monet's eyesight was nearly gone but he still managed to leave a lasting impression.

The Beyond (1972), Georgia O'Keeffe

Let's end this post with a look at two of the final works of Georgia O'Keeffe. Although she died in 1986, her final unassisted work was in 1972 when she was going blind due to macular degeneration.

Sky Above Clouds (1965), O'Keeffe

She painted other scenes I'll call, skyscapes, like this one in 1965. I wonder how many other artists are inspired by flights on an airplane like Ms. O'Keeffe upon her return to New Mexico from her world travels.