Not all of the people who are considered to be among the world's most respected creative artists achieved acclaim and success during their own lifetimes.
There have been many talented individuals in the spheres of art, literature and music who were, sadly, comparatively under-sung while living. And it was not until after they passed away that critical re-evaluation and the zeal of devotees eventually led to them - and their work - being re-discovered and lionized.
These are just a few of our planet's iconic cultural figures whose genius was not fully recognized at the time they were creating their art.
People who might never have come to the world's attention without the passionate campaigning of those who believed that a great talent had been overlooked...
So here's to...
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| • El Greco (1541-1614) |
| • Johannes Vermeer (1632-1675) |
| • Paul Cézanne (1839-1906) |
| • Claude Monet (1840-1926) |
| • Paul Gauguin (1848-1903) |
| • Vincent Van Gogh (1853-1890) |
| • Georges Seurat (1859-1891) |
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| • Geoffrey Chaucer (1343-1400) |
| • Jane Austen (1775-1817) |
| • John Keats (1795-1821) |
| • Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849) |
| • Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862) |
| • Herman Melville (1819-1891) |
| • Emily Dickinson (1830-1886) |
| • Edith Holden (1871-1920) |
| • Franz Kafka (1883-1924) |
| • H. P. Lovecraft (1890-1937) |
| • Zora Neale Hurston (1891-1960) |
| • Sylvia Plath (1932-1963) |
| • John Kennedy Toole (1937-1969) |
| • Stieg Larsson (1954-2004) |
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| • Nicéphore Niépce (1765-1833) |
| • Solomon Butcher (1856-1927) |
| • Diane Arbus (1923-1971) |
| • Vivian Maier (1926-2009) |
| • Francesca Woodman (1958-1981) |
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| • Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750) |
| • Franz Schubert (1797-1828) |
| • Georges Bizet (1838-1875) |
| • Gustav Mahler (1860-1911) |
| • Scott Joplin (1868-1917) |
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| • Bix Beiderbecke (1903-1931) |
| • Robert Johnson (1911-1938) |
| • Nick Drake (1948-1974) |
| • Eva Cassidy (1963-1996) |
| • Jeff Buckley (1966-1997) |
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The above list is not comprehensive. It is a salute to just some of the many creative artists for whom major recognition arrived posthumously.
Click here to read more about artists who were ghostly before they achieved immortality.
Click here to suggest a creative artist you think should be included on this website.
Keith Reid's lyrics for Procol Harum's "A Whiter Shade Of Pale"
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and so it was that later as the miller told his tale that her face at first just ghostly turned a whiter shade of pale... |
Musical accompaniment to this website
"A Whiter Shade Of Pale"
Composed by Gary Brooker/Matthew Fisher/Keith Reid (1967)
Inspired by "Orchestral Suite Number 3 in D Major" by Johann Sebastian Bach (1730)
Performed on Hammond organ by Rein de Jong (2010)
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