A morbid topic, yet some how facinating.
Here is an alphabetical listing of those dearly departed artists (plus one art historian and one famous patron) who chose to leave this world by their own hands. Attempted suicides and gradual suicides by substance abuse have not been included. Neither will you see here the multitudes of artists who - unknowingly - killed themselves, over time, by licking lead and arsenic off their brushes, or inhaling acid while etching in unventilated rooms.
Whenever possible, methods, motivations and mitigating factors have been included.
An example of work by Henry Alexander.
Alexander, Henry (ca. 1860-1894)
American painter
Drank carbolic acid.
Arbus, Diane (1923-1971)
American photographer
Took a lethal dose of barbiturates and
slashed her wrists.
Bell, Gertrude Margaret Lowthian (1868-1926)
English architectural historian
Overdosed on sleeping pills in Baghdad.
Bonvin, Léon (1834-1866)
French watercolorist
Hung himself from a tree in the forest of
Meudon, after a Parisian dealer rejected
his paintings.
Borromini, Francesco (1599-1667)
Italian architect
Threw himself on a ceremonial sword,
then lingered for another 24 hours.
Bugatti, Rembrandt (1884-1916)
Italian sculptor and draftsman
Put on one of his finest suits and gassed himself.
Bupalos and Athenis (active ca. 540-ca. 537 BC)
Greek sculptors
Rumored to have been driven to suicide by
the nasty, albeit poetic, written attacks
of Hipponax (who apparently didn't like
their sculpture of him).
Carrington, Dora(1893-1932)
English painter and decorative artist
Shot herself a few weeks after the death of
her companion, Lytton Strachey.
Cassandre, Adolphe Mouron (1901-1968)
French painter, designer and typographer
Crevel, René (1900-1935)French Dada and Surrealist poet
Gassed himself the day before the Congress of
Writers for the Defense of Culture met in Paris.
Czigány, Dezsö (1883-1937)
Hungarian painter
Committed suicide in a psychotic fit, but
not before killing his family.
Daswanth (active ca. 1560; d 1584)
Indian miniature painter
Stabbed himself with a dagger.
Dayes, Edward (1763-1804)
English painter, draftsman and printmakerSpanish painter and sculptor
Doort, Abraham van der (1575/80-1640)
Dutch wax-modeler, drawing-master and
administrator
Left this world despondent over the thought
that he might have misplaced one of
Charles I's favorite miniatures.
Erhard, Johann Chirstoph (1795-1822)
German painter and printmaker
Fagan, Robert (1761-1816)
English painter, archaeologist and dealer
Jumped out of a window in Rome.
Frank, Jean-Michel (1895-1941)
French designer
Leapt to his death in New York City after having
been there for one week. Purely coincidental.
Fries, Ernst (1801-1833)
German draftsman, painter and lithographer
Slit his wrist.
Gagneraux, Bénigne (1756-1795)
French painter and engraver
"Fell" out of a window in Florence.
Gerstl, Richard (1883-1908)Austrian painter and draftsman
Disemboweled himself with a butcher knife
after a brief romantic fling with the wife
of the composer, Arnold Schoenberg.
Gertler, Mark (1891-1939)
English painter
Tightly sealed up a room and turned on
the gas ring.
Gorky, Arshile (1904-1948)
American painter
His studio had burned, his wife had left him,
his health was bad and he had no money -
so he hung himself.
Greco, Alberto (1915-1965)Argentine painter, sculptor and performance artist
Overdosed on barbiturates, and left notes
about how it felt (for as long as he could,
anyway).
Gros, Baron Jean-Antoine (1771-1835)
French painter
Drowned himself in the Seine
Haydon, Benjamin Robert (1786-1846)
English painter, teacher and writer
Shot himself, then cut his throat.
Hébuterne, Jeanne (1898-1920)
French painter
Pregnant with their second child, she leapt from
a third-story window two days after her partner,
Amedeo Modigliani, died of tuberculosis.
Johnson, Ray (1927-1995)American painter, collagist, "mail" and
performance artist
Committed "Rayocide" one Friday the 13th
by jumping off a Sag Harbor bridge and
backstroking away.
Kahlo, Frida (1907-1954)Mexican painter
We're fairly certain she overdosed on painkillers,
though the coroner's report read, "pulmonary
embolism."
Kirchner, Ernst Ludwig (1880-1838)
German painter, printmaker and sculptor
Shot himself after the combination of illness
and the termination of his career by the National
Socialist Party proved too much.
Kricke, Norbert (1922-1984)German sculptor
Kruyder, Herman (1881-1935)
Dutch painter and draftsman
Committed suicide in a psychiatric hospital.
Kurzweil, Max (1867-1916)
Austrian painter and printmaker
On leave from being a war artist in Istria, he
did it in Vienna.
Lefèvre, Robert-Jacques-François (1755-1830)
French painter
Lehmbruck, Wilhelm (1881-1919)
German sculptor, painter and printmaker
Lemoyne, François (1688-1737)
French painter and draftsman
Lo Savio, Francesco (1935-1963)
Italian painter and sculptor
Lombardi, Mark (1951-2000)
American draftsman
Hung himself in his Williamsburg, New York
studio.
Malaval, Robert (1937-1980)
French painter and sculptor
Shot himself in the head.
Maurer, Alfred (1868-1932)
American painter
Hung himself in the doorway of his father's
bedroom.
Mayakovsky, Vladimir (1893-1930)
Russian poet, playwright and artist
Shot himself.
Mayer, Constance (1775-1821)
French painter
Cut her throat with the razor of painter
Pierre-Paul Prud'hon, who'd been her teacher
and then her lover but was not, apparently,
going to be her husband.
Min Yŏng-hwan (1861-1905)
Korean calligrapher and painter
Was so strongly opposed to living under the
1905 Protection Treaty being enforced
by Japan, that he decided not to.
Minton, John (1917-1957)
English painter and illustrator
Took an overdose of Tuinal.
Nero (AD 37-68)
Roman art patron and, yes, emperor
Decided stabbing himself in the neck was
preferable to being flogged to death.
Pascin, Jules (1885-1930)American painter, draftsman and printmaker
Pascin succeeded financially but was mentally unstable.
Amidst growing appreciation for his "elegant little obscenities" (George Grosz), on the eve of a one-man show in a prestigious Paris gallery in 1930, Pascin, distraught over his stormy affair with Lucy Krohg, he committed suicide by slashing his wrists and then hanging himself.
Pellizza da Volpedo, Giuseppe (1868-1907)
Italian painter
Hung himself after the deaths of his
wife and son.
Réquichot, Bernard (1929-1961)
French painter, collagist and writer
Robert, Louis-Léopold (1794-1835)
Swiss painter
Killed himself in Venice, in front of his easel, on
the 10th anniversary of his brother's suicide.
Rothko, Mark (1903-1970)
American painter
Slit his wrists in his New York studio.
National Gallery of Art in Washington
has a wonderful on-line slide presentation on
Rothko's work.
Loacted here at:
http://www.nga.gov/feature/rothko/
Sage, Kay (1898-1963)
American painter and poet
"I have built an ivory tower of despair...
I scream, I scream...
In my ivory tower."-- Kay Sage, 1957
Seymour, Robert (1800-1836)
English printmaker and painter
Shot himself in the garden at his home in
Islington.
Soares dos Reis, António (1847-1889)
Portuguese sculptor, engraver and teacher
Soroka, Grigory (1823-1864)
Russian painter and draftsman
Staël, Nicolas de (1914-1955)
French painter
Jumped out of his studio window in Antibes.
Stauffer-Bern, Karl (1857-1891)
Swiss printmaker, painter, sculptor and poet
Tilson, Henry (?1659-1695)
English painter and draftsman
Shot himself through the heart with a pistol over
the unrequited love of a wealthy patroness.
van Gogh, Vincent (1853-1890)Dutch painter
Died, two days afterwards, of a self-inflicted
gunshot wound to the chest.
Vaughan, Keith (1912-1977)
English painter
Chose to overdose, rather than live with bowel
cancer, kidney disease and depression.
Watanabe Kazan (1793-1841)Japanese painter
Committed an honorable suicide after a run in
with the Tokugawa shogunate (over its
isolationist policies) led to his being under house
arrest.
Witkiewicz, Stanislaw Ignacy (1895-1939)
Polish writer, art theorist, painter and photographer
When the Second Army invaded Poland, he tied
himself to his lover, fed her poison and slit his
wrists. She regained consciousness. Him - no.
Witte, Emanuel de (1617-1693)
Dutch painter
Said to have drowned himself, after his body
was discovered in a frozen canal.
Wood, Christopher (1901-1930)
English painter
Stepped in front of a train.
Xue Ji (AD 649-713)
Chinese calligrapher and scholar-official
Forced to commit suicide after somehow
becoming embroiled in a plot to poison
the new emperor.
Keywords: artist suicide,
Edited byPaul Grant - web site Paul-grant.com
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