Member-only story
Where Did the Cliché of the Suffering Artist Come From?
Myths of writers and artists that go back centuries
Here are a few clichés about writers and artists: they are guided by destiny to become who they are meant to be. They suffer because they are poor. They are inspired by nature. They are admirable and yet dangerous. They have great teachers but their greatness can’t be taught. They are independent thinkers. Diligence and labour only take them so far, since inspiration is the vital spark. They retain control over their work but they also surrender to it too. They love freely, believe passionately, and think without conventional boundaries. They are, above all, authentic individuals who cannot be pigeonholed by simple labels.
No matter how seductive this list may sound, it is worth noting that every one of the above descriptions is a stereotype that has existed for decades or centuries, and in some cases even for millennia.
Why is this picture of the artist/writer so seductive, and why has it lasted so long?
In a fascinating study made by two German scholars as long back as 1934, called Legend, Myth, and Magic in the Image of the Artist: A Historical Experiment, Ernst Kris and Otto Kurz explored that ways in which the lives of artists…
