Strickland
Charles Strickland One of the best novels by William Somerset Maugham can be considered the novel “The Moon and Sixpence”, which describes the fate of a strange creative personality and a great artist at the same time Charles Strickland, the prototype of a famous artist of 19th century Paul Gaughen. His talent and genius were recognized only after his death and his work became his posthumous monument commemorating the artist’s extravagance and greatness at the same time. His character, views on life and his own way of world perception were so extraordinary and difficult to comprehend as most of his works. Strickland didn’t study painting profoundly, he didn’t even know how to apply one or another technique, but he had something inside him that made him express himself and create. At first there was nothing out of the ordinary in him, he looked commonplace, just "good, dull, honest, plain man", like many others. But suddenly everything changes; he feels a new strong desire to paint, to place the pictures from his inner world on canvas. Strickland breaks all that connects him with his past ordinary life, abandons his job and wife, and goes to Paris where he devotes himself to painting. As a really talented man he needs very little and lives in great poverty. Like all beginners he is not a success but he dreams of painting something extraordinary, something that will attract people's attention, appeal to their feelings and emotions. In fact, most creative people are very passionate about their work, yet they can be extremely objective about it as well. And Strickland is one of them. He 'works on a canvas with all the force of his violent personality" and is never satisfied with what he creates. When he was creating his masterpieces people considered him to be a poor madman pretended to be an artist. Nobody even thought of the possibility that this untidy ragged man, always hungry and penniless, one day would be known worldwide as a genius of