Creativity Takes (Enormous) Patience
“The greatest impediment to creativity is your impatience, the almost inevitable desire to hurry up the process, express something, and make a splash.”
The Mona Lisa is the most well-known painting in the world.
Historians believe the portrait depicting an ever-so-slightly smiling face is modelled on Madam Lisa Giocondo, wife of a wealthy Florentine.
The Italian Renaissance artist Leonardo da Vinci painted it, and it has hung in the Louvre Museum in Paris since 1804 and attracts around 10 million visitors yearly.
Whilst there may be more impressive works of art (taste is subjective, after all), the Mona Lisa is without parallel in its recognisability.
So, how long did this famous painting take to make?
To save you time looking it up, the answer is 16 years (from 1503 to 1519).
Yes, you read that right.
Sixteen whole years. That’s longer than most people spend in formal education.
For one painting.
And da Vinci is far from the only creative mind to have spent years crafting their art.
The similarly talented painter Michelangelo spent four years painting the Sistine Chapel ceiling.
This undertaking is more impressive than da Vinci, given he painted a whole ceiling.
Here is a random but related fun fact: The Airbus A380, the world’s largest passenger plane, requires 3,600 litres of paint to cover the exterior. That’s enough paint for Michelangelo to have painted the Sistine Chapel ninety-seven times.
The creative effort in crafting such a detailed and expansive work must have been immense.
Les Miserables, one of the longest-running shows in London’s theatre district, is based on Victor Hugo’s classic novel, which did one better than the Mona Lisa, taking over 17 years to write.
That’s longer than the majority spend in formal education.
Sticking with French writers, Gustave Flaubert's Madame Bovary took five years to complete.
And the English author J.R.R. Tolkien spent years writing the epic fantasy series The Lord of the Rings.
The creation of its richly detailed world, languages, and histories underscores the time and dedication involved.
Even this wasn’t as long as it took the Irish wordsmith James Joyce to write Finnegans Wake. Joyce spent 17 years writing this complex and experimental novel, published in 1939.
Turning back to the art world, the famed French sculptor Auguste Rodin worked on his monumental project, ‘The Gates of Hell’, for an unbelievable 37 years, from 1880 to his death in 1917.
The story goes it was never fully completed to his satisfaction but still stands as a masterpiece.
The list above shows the best creative minds are patient and tenacious in pursuing their visions.
It seems that to leave a lasting mark, you must invest a significant amount of time to achieve creative perfection.
There is no shortcut.
You’ll love our Creative Thinking course if you find the above helpful. Made in collaboration with some of the world’s greatest creative minds, it's packed with practical tools and tips to help unlock your creative potential.
