> The millionaire artist is a very modern invention. I actually wonder how many pre-20th century examples there really are... Artisan artists who made piecemea

> The millionaire artist is a very modern invention. I actually wonder how many pre-20th century examples there really are... Artisan artists who made piecemeal works of art - like Rubens, say - could make a comfortable living, but it takes mass media to gain real wealth. I can only think of a handful of fiction writers who got seriously wealthy just from writing alone back then - Charles Dickens, Jules Verne, maybe a few others.