The Worst Dads of Art History

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Men of so-called “artistic genius” have historically gotten away with a lot of bad behavior, especially when it comes to fatherhood. Paul McCartney apparently thought that John Lennon “didn’t really know how to be a dad”; and first child Julian described him as “distant” and “a hypocrite.” Michael Jackson infamously dangled the infant Prince Michael “Blanket” Jackson II off a fourth-floor hotel balcony. These men are remembered both for their musical legacies and, to a lesser extent, their bad dad behavior. The history of deadbeat dads in art, however, is less publicized; but it’s one riddled with sketchy, age-inappropriate artist-model relationships, illegitimate and unacknowledged children, and plenty of emotional distance. In honor of Father’s Day, we rounded up the worst dad stories in art history, ranked from least to most unacknowledged children, and least to most collateral damage.

In 1931, Romanian Modernist sculptor Constantin Brancusi began a relationship with pianist Vera Moore, and three years later she gave birth to his only son, John Constantin Brancusi Moore. Devoted only to sculpture, the artist refused to acknowledge his paternity, although today, auction houses and Romanian newspapers speak of it matter-of-factly. Similarly, British Romanticist painter J.M.W. Turner was so invested in his art that he refused to acknowledge the paternity of his two daughters, Evelina and Georgiana, born to his lover Sarah Danby. Alas, as the Tate Museum notes, the girls might have been Turner’s half-sisters. Either way, they probably never received much fatherly affection.

Other artists, like Gustav Klimt, were more promiscuous, and slightly less in denial about the possible consequences. The preeminent artist of the Vienna Secession, like many Modernists, he took up affairs with his models. Take Maria Ucicka, for example: their son, Gustav Ucicky, was born in 1899, and went on to become a film director in Nazi Germany and Austria, collecting works by his father throughout his life. The Klimt Foundation in Vienna confirms six children from four different lovers. Klimt, however, was quiet about his affairs, and rumors estimate as many as 14 Klimt offspring. Another of Klimt’s models, Marie “Mizzi” Zimmermann, had two of his children—Gustav (#2) (in the same year as Gustav #1), and Otto, who was both born and deceased in 1902. Consuela Camila “Ella” Huber had Gustav (#3) in 1912, Charlotte in 1914, and Wilhelm in 1915. Klimt is said to have financially supported his children and their mothers, but he juggled lovers throughout his life, and no children were listed on his official death notice.

Of all the dads on this list, Paul Gauguin is doubtless the most deadbeat. The post-impressionist had eight children, five with wife Mette Sophie Gauguin, who he abandoned in Paris to run away to Tahiti, but not before bloodying her face with his fist in front of their 10-year-old son, Emil. Sophie took her children from Paris to Copenhagen, where they lived with relatives, rarely hearing from their absentee father.

Gauguin allegedly played favorites with his children, too, although apparently not enough to stick around. Attracted to the “primitive” allure of the French Polynesian island, he took three teenage wives there, who he likely infected with syphilis. One, Tehura, had a son by the painter, Emile, who became a tourist attraction because of his famous father, and was brought to Chicago by a French journalist who encouraged him to paint. As far as fathering goes, Gaugin was quite the patriarch: selfish, violent, and deeply colonial.

One of Lucian #Freud's most tender paintings: 'Pregnant Girl' (1960-1) a portrait of his teenage lover, Bernadine Coverley while pregnant with Bella Freud. Will be offered at auction for the very first time on 10 February in London. #SothebysContemporary

A photo posted by Sotheby's (@sothebys) on Jan 17, 2016 at 2:09am PST

Topping our list for “largest number of children,” although not necessarily for “worst treatment of his family” is Lucian Freud. It seems inevitable that the grandson of Sigmund Freud went on to grow a knotty family tree—sensationalists like to say that the painter fathered as many as 40 children; some estimate the number around 25, but 14 children are acknowledged today. Despite his reputation as a distant yet caring father, four were left out of his will, sparking legal disputes over his $71 million estate. In 2013, the Daily Mail  reported Freud once saying he “never thought about” having so many children, “But it seemed quite exciting when women were pregnant.”

Fecund Freud was first married in 1948, to Kathleen “Kitty” Epstein, the niece of a previous lover, with whom he had two daughters, Annie and Annabel. Between 1957 and 1969, he had four children—Alexander, Rose, Isabel, and Susie—with Suzy Boyt, one of his students at London’s Slade School of Fine Art. Between 1958 and 1964, he fathered Jean, Paul, Lucy, and David with Katherine Margaret McAdam. The two met after she won a bizarre "most beautiful student" competition at Central Saint Martins College of Art. Simultaneously, he was having an affair with writer and gardener Bernardine Coverley, and Bella and Esther were born in 1961 and 1963. One of Freud’s portrait subjects, Lady Jacquetta Eliot, Countess of St Germans, gave birth to another Freudian offspring, the Honorable Francis Michael Eliot. Finally, Freud impregnated another student of his from Slade, Celia Paul, and Frank was born in 1984.

Freud lived alone, and only gave a select few of his children his telephone number. His private nature also prevented his children from knowing about one another; Annie, his oldest, thought she and her sister were her father’s only children until she was 27 years old. Members of the Freud herd have gone on to become successful artists, designers, and writers, despite thinking of him as “hardly father material.”

Anyway, don’t forget to call your dad!

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