Painters: the Dark Side

Many famous painters have had a dark side to their genius: let's lift up a few stones and see how much you know about what lurks beneath!

Check the next post for the answers: if you got at least five right, you are a Kaleidoscope Mastermind!


1. This magnificent artist, who revolutionised painting with his novel use of chiaroscuro, was a womaniser and a brawler. There was nothing he liked better than swaggering around the streets of Rome with a sword, picking fights. He was always causing trouble: he threw a plate of artichokes at a waiter, he assaulted a notary, he was arrested for brawling, drunkenness and stone throwing, and in 1606 he had to go on the run from the law, because he killed a man over a disputed point during a tennis match. (He makes McInroe look like a model of politeness!) No one was surprised when he was murdered at the age of 40, but his death deprived us of many masterpieces that might have been. Who was this unpleasant genius?


a Caravaggio
b Tintoretto
c Murillo
d Raphael

2.  This Dutch artist was considered the greatest painter of his day, and is still regarded as a peerless portraitist. His 1642 genre painting, "The Militia Company of Captain Frans Banning Cocq" is up there with the Mona Lisa as one of the world's most famous paintings.


He was not, however, a model of virtue in his personal life: he was sued for breach of promise, he cheated on his wife with the nanny, he scandalised the elders of his church by refusing to marry the mistress who bore him daughter, and he was chronically in debt, finally being forced to declare bankruptcy and having his house and all his posessions sold to satisfy his creditors. Who was this great painter who died an unhappy man?

a Vincent Van Gogh
b Anthonie Van Dyck
c Rembrandt van Rijn
d Frans Hals

3.  This accomplished woman, who has become a bit of a feminist icon in modern times, was a baroque painter whose work was influenced by Caravaggio. She was the first woman to be accepted as a member of the Academy of Arts in Florence. Her father, also a prominent artist, (this is a clue!) hired the Tuscan painter Agostino Tassi to tutor his talented daughter.


Tassi raped her and a long and nasty lawsuit ensued, very traumatic for the victim. She had to undergo a humiliating pelvic examination and she was also questioned under torture to make sure she was telling the truth. It came out that Tassi had committed adultery with his brother's wife, had plotted to murder his own wife and had also stolen from his various patrons. He was found guilty of the rape and imprisoned for a year.

This unhappy experience may have had something to do with the savage realism of her famous painting "Judith and Holofernes". Who was she?

a Sophonisba Tintoretto
b Francisca Giotto
c Gianaluca Buonarotti
d Artemisia Gentileschi

4.  This Australian avant-garde painter's work is internationally acclaimed and is collected in art museums around the world. In 2007 his painting "The Olgas" sold for $3.5 million dollars, then a record amount for an Australian painting. Sadly, he suffered from schizophrenia, which was exacerbated by his dependence on alcohol and heroin. Who was this brilliant artist who died of a drug overdose in 1992?


a John Brack
b Brett Whiteley
c Charles Blackman
d Arthur Boyd

5.  This painter and poet, who kept two wombats as pets, was a prominent member of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. After his wife committed suicide, her buried his unpublished erotic poems with her. When he was short of money a few years later, he exhumed her so he could have them published. He had several mistresses, among them Jane, the wife of his friend and business partner, William Morris.


He became increasingly morbid and mentally unstable as his addiction to chloral intensified, and he died on Easter Sunday in 1882.

Who was this eccentric Pre-Raphaelite?

a Edward Burne-Jones
b Dante Gabriel Rosetti
c William Holman Hunt
d John Everett Millais

6.  Another acclaimed artist who struggled his whole life with alcohol dependency, was the influential American painter who was a major force in abstract expressionism. He coined the term "action painting" for his technique of pouring and dripping paint on to canvas.


His "No. 5, 1948" became the world's most expensive painting in 2006, when it was sold to an anonymous buyer for $140 million.

He died in an alcohol-related single car accident in 1956. Who was he?

a Andy Warhol
b Paul Jackson Pollock
c Robert Rauschenberg
d Roy Lichtenstein