James McNeill Whistler, the artist who painted a rather famous portrait of his mother, was something of a curmudgeon. Once the artist noted, with nervousness, a notorious bore approaching him.
"Mr. Whistler," said the bore, "I passed your house last night ..."
Whereupon Whistler quickly replied,
"That was very kind of you," bowed, and continued on his way.
"You must recollect however that I know nothing of painting & that I detest it, unless it reminds me of something I have seen or think it possible to see. . . . Depend upon it of all the arts it is the most artificial & unnatural-& that by which the nonsense of mankind is the most imposed upon."
- Lord Byron (1788-1824), English poet. Letter, 14 April 1817, to the publisher John Murray (published in Byron’s Letters and Journals, vol. 5, 1973-81).