The Famous Artists You Never Knew Were Friends

Paul Gauguin and Vincent van Gogh

Impressionist painters Paul Gauguin and Vincent van Gogh met in 1887. They hit it off straight away and soon after meeting, van Gogh invited Gauguin to stay with him in his house in Arles, France. This was in hopes of beginning his dream of having his own artist’s collective.

Both artists learnt from each other, spending their time developing new techniques and broadening their color palettes with new pigments. Despite this, tempers frayed and the friends had many quarrels due to van Gogh’s stubborn nature clashing with Gauguin’s pride. A few weeks before he left, Gauguin painted a portrait of van Gogh painting sunflowers. When the artist saw the painting, he supposedly said that, while it looks a bit like him, he felt Gauguin had portrayed him as “a madman”. However, later in a letter to his brother Theo van Gogh he said: “My face has lit up after all a lot since, but it was indeed me, extremely tired and charged with electricity as I was then”.

Man Ray and Marcel Duchamp

When artists Man Ray and Marcel Duchamp first met in 1915, the pair ended up playing an impromptu game of tennis. Man Ray was quoted as saying: “Duchamp didn’t speak English and my French was non-existent… in order to have a conversation I would give a name to each pass and each time Duchamp would reply in English with ‘yes’.”

The pair found common ground in their shared independent spirits and sense of freedom, as well as a passion for chess. Man Ray and Duchamp’s creative processes were also similar in the way that both artists tried to undermine artistic conventions. In particular, Man Ray’s taste for using objects and experimenting with language was inspired by Duchamp.

Grandma Moses and Norman Rockwell

Artist Norman Rockwell’s friendship with outsider artist Grandma Moses (AKA Anna Mary Robertson Moses) is one of the most charming. Grandma Moses began painting at the age of 78 and she lived on a farm nearby to Rockwell when he left New York City for Arlington, Vermont.

They found common ground in the subjects and themes within their work, as both depicted everyday American life and culture. The pair took on a familial relationship and spent a lot of time together. When Grandma Moses turned 88 in 1948, Rockwell delivered an enormous birthday cake to her house, a mark of affection for his fellow artist.

Camille Pissarro and Paul Cézanne

Camille Pissarro and Paul Cézanne met at the Académie de Charles Suisse in Paris and a friendship and collaboration soon developed between the two Impressionist artists. For Cézanne, he recognized the same rejection of tradition and academic training that characterized his own work.

For Pissarro, he instantly saw Cézanne’s genius. For more than 20 years, Cézanne and Pissarro experimented with their work and developed the Impressionist style, despite criticisms from their peers.

Helen Frankenthaler and Grace Hartigan

Helen Frankenthaler and Grace Hartigan forged a lasting friendship in what was primarily the "boys club" of the New York City art scene in the 1930s and 40s. Sisters in Abstract Expressionism, the artists became friends early in their careers and helped define the pillars of what we now know as feminism in art.

There were periods of time where their friendship cooled though, like in the late 1950s when Hartigan didn’t get on with Frankenthaler’s lover Clement Greenberg, an art critic who thought Hartigan’s latest work had regressed. Yet there was resilience in their friendship and the pair always came back together eventually.

Jackson Pollock and Willem de Kooning

Abstract Expressionists Jackson Pollock and Willem de Kooning’s friendship was one based on competition and rivalry. Kooning once said that Pollock redefined art so “new paintings” could be made again.

However, after a few drinks at one of Kooning’s after show parties, he’s rumored to have said: “Bill, you betrayed it... You’re doing the figure, you’re still doing the same goddamn thing. You know you never got out of being a figure painter.” Despite these differences, the artists pushed each other beyond what they could’ve achieved working separately.

Edgar Degas and Édouard Manet

In January 1862, two young painters started talking about their craft as they copied Diego Velázquez’s masterpiece, the Infanta Margarita, in the Louvre. 30 year old Édouard Manet was impressed by the skill of the 27 year old Edgar Degas, who, as the story goes, was etching his copy directly onto an engraving plate.