The Character of an Artist

"Art is by its nature wrought, however convincing it is. It has to do with artifice, which means with an artist's ability to convey feelings that aren't necessarily ones the artist has himself; otherwise the most remarkable artists would also be the most virtuous and extraordinary people. I mean to say, the character of an artist doesn't enter into the nature of art. Eliot said that art is the escape from personality, which I think is right. We know that Velazquez embezzled money from the Spanish court and wanted power and so on, but you can't see this in his art." - Lucian Freud

Source: Portraits by Michael Kimmelman