Feel Art Again: November Artists II

On Tuesday, I presented fascinating facts about six artists who were born in or who died in November. Wrapping up the list, today's post presents interesting tidbits about five more November artists. (This list, however, is by no means exhaustive; there are more than 60 artists who were born in or who died in November!)

7. Camille Pissarro (death: Nov. 13, 1903), a French artist, had eight children with Julie Vellay. Two of the children died while still young, but the rest followed in their father's footsteps and also became painters. [His "Landscape in the Vicinity of Louveciennes" is pictured above.]

8. René Magritte (birth: Nov. 21, 1898) suffered tragedy at a young age. When he was about 14 years old, his mother drowned herself in the River Sambre. Magritte witnessed the retrieval of her body from the River; some believe this experience may have influenced a 1927-1928 series of paintings.

9. The Russian artist Pavel Korin spent over 40 years of his life working on his magnum opus, "Farewell to Rus." He produced large paintings in preparation for the great work, ordered a huge canvas, designed a special stretcher for the canvas, and spent years coating the canvas with multiple layers of special underlays. Yet, by the time Korin died on Nov. 22, 1967, he had not put a single brushstroke on the canvas.

10. Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, a French painter, was born on Nov. 24, 1864. He died shortly before his 37th birthday, at his family's estate. Supposedly, his last words were, "Le vieux con!" ("Old fool!"), as he watched his father trying to kill a fly in the room.

11. The American artist Clyfford Still (birth: Nov. 30, 1904) was very particular about the display of his works. He donated 31 paintings to the Buffalo Fine Arts Academy, but only on the condition that they must be shown permanently in their own room and never loaned out. Approximately 750 more of his paintings have been in storage in Maryland since his death in 1980, due to a stipulation in his will that requires they be shown only in a gallery built to his specifications and under his terms.

'Feel Art Again' appears every Tuesday and Thursday.