Artists

Abstract

The status of artists depends greatly on their personal talent and achievements in the field of the arts. The most prominent artists are found in international art history books. In the nineteenth century there were two main routes to the artist’s profession: from families of learned professionals and from craftsman families. The Strauss and the Wagner musician families represent artist dynasties, which were less and less common in the twentieth century. Laterality was more characteristic of artists, making intragenerational relationships more important than intergenerational relationships. Intragenerational enclaves were shaped by a common intellectual and aesthetic ethos. Cousin marriages were replaced by marriages between friends and their sisters and brothers, and sometimes by love affairs within the enclave. Dynasticity eroded, but children and grandchildren, some of them artists, devoted themselves to treasuring their parents’ legacy.