A biographer-friend writes to suggest a parlor game:
What great artists (or famous people) could, and couldn’t, say the sentence “I am ridiculous”? Washington no, Lincoln yes. Milton no, Shakespeare yes.
I am going to venture into your territory, based on little knowledge, but why not? Stuart Davis, yes. Jackson Pollack, no. Eakins, no. Picasso, to his credit, yes. Bonnard, much as I dislike him, probably yes. Edward Hopper, no.
You know my methods, Watson. Apply them.
I like this game very much, in part because it doesn’t always sort along obvious lines of personal taste (at least not if you play it honestly). To wit:
Sherlock Holmes no, Nero Wolfe yes (sorry, Watson)
Jerome Robbins no, George Balanchine yes
Stravinsky no, Auden yes
Miles Davis no, Louis Armstrong yes
Sinatra no, Nat Cole yes
Tolstoy no, Dostoevsky yes
John Marin no, Milton Avery yes
Arthur Miller no, Tennessee Williams yes
Willa Cather no, Flannery O’Connor yes
FDR no, Churchill yes
Beethoven no, Haydn yes
Hemingway no, Fitzgerald yes
Vuillard no, Bonnard yes (my friend is half right)
Richard Rodgers no, Cole Porter yes
Henry James no, Dr. Johnson yes