VISUAL ARTISTS WHO COMMITTED SUICIDE
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.
Gertrude Margaret Lowthian (1868–1926)
English writer
Overdosed on sleeping pills in Baghdad.
Bonvin, Léon (1834-1866)
French watercolorist
Hanged 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
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
committed suicide after the rejection of one of his designs
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
Domínguez, Oscar (1906–1957)
Spanish painter and sculptor
Slit his wrists in the bath
Doort, abraham van der (1575/80–1640)
Dutch wax-modeler
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.
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)
Armenian-born American painter
Hanged himself after his studio burned, his wife had left him and he had no money.
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, Amno Modigliani, died of tuberculosis.
Johnson, Ray (1927–1995)
American painter, collagist 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
Overdosed on painkillers, though the coroner’s report read, “pulmonary embolism.”
Kirchner, Ernst Ludwig (1880–1938)
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
Took his life by gunshot in front of his home in Frauenkirch
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
Hanged 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
Hanged 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 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
Hanged himself in his Paris studio, possibly depressed over the reviews of his current show.
Pellizza da Volpedo, Giuseppe (1868–1907)
Italian painter
Hanged himself after the deaths of his wife and son.
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.
Sage, Kay (1898–1963)
American painter and poet
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
Hanged himself
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
Overdosed on chloral hydrate
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, but not him.
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 becoming embroiled in a plot to poison the new emperor.
— © Abraham Menashe