The Knowledge of a Lifetime

Perspectives from The Artist's Road

Editorial Cartoon by Edward Linley Sambourne 1878
An Appeal to the Law
Naughty Critic, to Use Bad Language
Silly Painter, to Go to Law About It!

A question familiar to many artists is, “How long did it take you to paint that?” It seems that some people would like to appraise the value of a work of art by the dollars per hour spent in painting time. When James Abbott McNeill Whistler was asked how he could ask such a high price (200 guineas, or about $17,000 today) for his painting, Nocturne in Black and Gold, the Falling Rocket, which had taken only two days to paint, he replied, “No, I ask it for the knowledge of a lifetime.”

Nocturne in Blue and Gold, The Falling Rocket
1875 J.A.M. Whistler