When Do We Reach Our Creative Peaks?

A recent paper out of the Erasmus School of Economics in the Netherlands explored the lives of artists to estimate the average time most people reach their creative peaks. By collecting data from 221 famous painters of the 19th and 20th centuries, the paper’s author — economist P.H. Franses — found that artists on average created their most defining work “at the 0.618 fraction of their lives,” which puts their age around 41.92 years old.

Ah, just what a group of already highly self critical and fragile people need! An age marker to determine their chance of becoming relevant!

It’s an interesting study, especially within the confines of art history, but it really doesn’t have to mean anything to your life if you don’t want it to. Create ’til you die, I say! Like me for example, I plan to peak and then just keep peakin.’ (JK, I clearly peaked circa my second grade winter choir concert and NO ONE HAS BEEN ABLE TO MATCH MY ZAZU SOLO IN “I JUST CAN’T WAIT TO BE KING” SINCE.)