Misfortune of time

It is a bit odd how many talents a person must have to get his work known. One example that often comes to my mind when I think of this situation is Van Gogh: he was extremely talented as a painter, with a unique, appealing style, but he had a hard time making friends, contacts, and persuading people to buy his work. Perhaps, one might think, he should have fostered those talents too. I disagree: there were specialized people at those times whose work was to discover talents like his (although, I must admit that it was not easy to spot Van Gogh's genius at that time). 

But, sadly, sometimes the reason of why one's work is not widely known is...plain bad luck. Or, at least, that is the quick impression I got from the fantastic work of the philosopher Schelling, usually characterized as one of the German idealists. According to the scholars who presented at the Facultad de Filosofía y Letras, at the Philosophy College in the UNAM, the reason why Schelling is not so widely known today is that his work was overshadowed by two, allegedly, greater philosophers: Kant and Hegel.         

Since I was not familiar with Schelling's work before (his oeuvre, besides not being as popular as others, has not been translated from German in its totality), I only got a glimpse of his ideas, but I'm definitely going to find out more. Meanwhile, I'll just leave one of his quotes from On University Studies (1803) here:

All rules for study are summed up in this one: learn only in order to create

And, by the way, although fame did not make Van Gogh rich whilst he was alive, it's hard to think of a more famous and recognized artist today.