The Art of Fiction on Art, Part II

After you read The Art of Fiction on Art, Part I, consult this list. You have a lot of reading ahead of you!

CLAUDE AND CAMILLE, Stephanie Cowell. Love story of Monet and his muse, Camille.
DANCING FOR DEGAS, Kathryn Wagner. An aspiring ballerina's relationship with a master painter.
DEPTHS OF GLORY, Irving Stone. Camille Pissarro, his struggles to paint in a new vein while combatting poverty and scorn.
GIRL IN HYACINTH BLUE, Susan Vreeland. The 350-year provenance of a fictional Vermeer.
GIRL WITH A PEARL EARRING, Tracy Chevalier. Vermeer's maid, model, muse.
I, HOGARTH Michael Dean. The bawdy life of the moralizing London painter.
I, MONA LISA, Jeanne Kalogridis. The model untangles a sinister web of treachery.
I AM MADAME X, Gioia Diliberto. The model for Sargent's shocking society portrait and her tempestuous personality.
I AM REMBRANDT'S DAUGHTER, Lynn Cullen. Or so she thinks. Young adult fiction.
LEAVING VAN GOGH, Carol Wallace. Van Gogh's last months under the care of Dr. Gachet.
LIFE STUDIES, Susan Vreeland. Stories told from the points of view of people who knew the artists.
LUNCHEON OF THE BOATING PARTY, Susan Vreeland. Renoir and his model-friends display the social changes of Paris and its joie de vivre the summer of 1880 when he creates his masterpiece.
LUST FOR LIFE, Irving Stone, Van Gogh's struggles, and relationship with Gauguin.
LYDIA CASSATT READING THE MORNING PAPER, Harriet Scott Chessman. Is it the painter Mary Cassatt or her dying sister Lydia who wins Degas' love and respect?
PICTURES AT AN EXHIBITION, Sara Houghteling. A looted gallery in World War II and the mystique of one particular painting.
REMBRANDT'S WHORE Sylvie Matton. A monologue of Hendrickje Stoffels, common law wife of Rembrandt.
SIGNORA DA VINCI, Robin Maxwell,. The fanciful tale of Leonardo's secret mother.
STEALING THE MYSTIC LAMB, Noah Charney. The Ghent alterpiece by Jan van Eyck, the most valueable piece of art of its time, threatened.
SWAN THIEVES, Elizabeth Kostova. The mystery of the identity of a woman in a painting.
THE AGONY AND THE ECSTASY, Irving Stone. Classic about Michelangelo, the Sistine ceiling, and his relationship with popes.
THE ART FORGER, B. A. Shapiro. Based on the Isabella Stewart Gardner 1990 theft of thirteen paintings.
THE ART THIEF, Noah Charney. Mystery of two intertwined thefts.
THE BIRTH OF VENUS, Sarah Dunant. Events in the life of Botticelli's young model.
THE BOTTICELLI SECRET, Marina Fiorato. A romp omtp the symbolism behind Primavera.
THE CREATION OF EVE, Lynn Cullen. Sofonisba Anguissole, early female painter in the court of Spain, tells her own story and reveals her yearnings.
THE DAY OF THE LOCUST, Nathaniel West. The perils of a serious artist working in Hollywood.
THE FOREST LOVER Susan Vreeland. Against all social mores, Canada's national treasure, Emily Carr paints the British Columbia wilds and its great totems.
THE FORGERY OF VENUS, Michael Gruber. A modern painter inhabiting Velasquez.
THE GIRL YOU LEFT BEHIND, Jojo Moyes. A painting connects two love stories across time.
THE KING'S AGENT, Donna Russo Morin. The real Battista della Paglia, collector and thief, working for François, King of France.
THE LACUMA Barbara Kingsolver. Frida Kahlo & Diego Rivera appear in political and domestic turmoil.
THE LAST VAN GOGH, Alyson Richman. Wife of Dr. Gachet, van Gogh's care giver, and her role in the last months of the painter's life.
THE LOST MADONNA, Kelly Jones. An art restorer is convinced that a painting lost in the 1966 flood in Florence still exists.
THE MADONNAS OF LENINGRAD, Debra Dean. A docent's remembrances of paintings in the Hermitage.
THE MASTERPIECE, Emile Zola. A fictional painter loosely modelled after Cézanne, drawn in typical Zola noir naturalism.
THE MIRACLES OF PRETO, Laurie Albanese and Maura Morowitz. Lascivious Fra Lippo Lippi and his unbridled passion for a nun, Sister Lucrezia.
THE MOON AND SIXPENCE, Somerset Maugham. A fictional protagonist echoes but is not Gauguin.
THE MUSIC LESSON, Katharine Weber. An Irish narrative largely outside the stolen Vermeer who charge it is to keep it hidden.

This ought to keep you busy for a year.
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Published on August 06, 2013 15:42
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message 5: by Lynn (new)

Lynn Cullen I enjoyed your post and list, Susan. Thank you for including two of my books. Some of my all-time favorites are on there, but see that I have some reading to do. Now I know why I love to write art fiction--I love to read it!

I see that M.J. Rose has some excellent suggestions to add to your list. May I also suggest The Great Man, by Kate Christensen?


message 6: by Mary (new)

Mary Naked Came I, a novel of Rodin by David Weiss. He was amazing.

The Passion of Artemisia,my introduction to you. First the book and then the movie.


message 7: by Susan (new)

Susan Vreeland I'll do two more lists eventually--one to continue this list, and another consisting of art pieces that are not paintings. I'll wait until I get a substantial number.

For those giving me titles, it would help enormously for you to provide the author, if you know it, and a ten-word (approximately) identification of the subject of the book. Then I won't have to look up so many as I did for this list. That's quite time-consuming, but I am delighted with the results.


message 8: by Jemille (last edited Aug 07, 2013 10:47AM) (new)

Jemille Williams MJ, I just read the fabulous The Lady & The Unicorn! Can't believe I forgot to "nominate" it! And I just thought of Chasing Cezanne yesterday -- lots of fun, as is everything Peter Mayle does!

Thanks for this great list, Susan. I had no idea that Pissarro was the subject of a book. I'll stack it and most of these to my twin Petronas Towers of Books to Read.


message 9: by Gisele (new)

Gisele I can't believe you didn't add "The Passion of Artesia" or, "Clara and Mr. Tiffany" to this list!

"The Lost Painting" by Jonathan Harr
"The Painted Kiss" by Elizabeth Hickey


message 10: by Susan (new)

Susan Vreeland Don't be disappointed, Gisele. A supplementary list is being created, so check back soon. My own novel, The Passion of Artemisia, will be on that one, as well as your two other suggestions. For some unknown reason, Goodreads cut off my list. I guess the blog was too long.

There will also be a list of non-painting art-related fiction. Clara and Mr. Tiffany, about the art of stained glass, will be on that list, coming later.


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