Girl in a Pink Dress

by Kylie Needham

WINNER OF THE MUD LITERARY PRIZE 2024

Far away from the glittering lights and famous personalities of the Sydney art world she once knew, Frances now lives a quiet life in a remote mountain town, pursuing her art. When an invitation arrives from a former lover to attend his painting exhibition at a celebrated gallery, Frances is plunged back into the past, when a single act changed the course of her life.

Told across two time periods, Girl in a Pink Dress is a sharp-eyed and compelling story about love and art, about sacrifice and ambition, and the often damaging relationship between artist and muse.

Genres: Literary Fiction, Art, Fiction, Book Club, Contemporary, Australia, Adult

141 pages, Kindle Edition

Published April 12, 2023

Reviews

[Sarah Clutton · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautiful, restrained writing from this brilliant debut author: every insight, every word was careful and clever. There was something dispiriting and raw in the history of the female protagonist, but her journey was also empowering. The final scene left a searing impression and I loved the quiet experience of being with this book. So, so wonderful.

[Ann Chesterman · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautifully drawn characters and story told from the point of view of protagonist, female landscape painter, Frances. Loved the vivid descriptions of painting process and art world, especially the quiet observations / commentary on the patriarchal nature of the commerce, critics and colleagues revealed through Frances’ encounters with each.

Her inner strength, point of view and talent makes her a compelling character despite her introversion. Loved spending time with her. A great read.

[Gia (지아) · Rating 2 out of 5]

Eh. This is such an unpopular opinion, but this book was just kinda... eh. I wanted to care, I wanted to connect to the characters. I just couldn't. I found the characters pretty bland to read about, although I will say the writing style was really good.

[Anna Baillie-Karas · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved this novel. Beautifully written in vivid, spare prose. Complex characters in artist Frances and larger than life ‘art royalty’ Clem, their relationship has echoes of Sylvia Plath/Ted Hughes or Celia Paul/Lucien Freud. It has an Australian sensibility - earthy, fresh & direct. A knowing & satirical insight into the glittering art world of Sydney rings true & contrasts with Frances’ quiet work in the hills. Recommended.

[Emily Love · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a quiet, small book. I didn’t fall in love with it, or anything in it, and I doubt I’ll remember it a year from now. But I enjoyed it nonetheless.

[Mabearbooks · Rating 4 out of 5]

A story that is filled with complex characters and gorgeously written in uncomplicated prose. A story told in dual timelines, this is quite a poignant book set in Australia, specifically in the Sydney art world. It tells the story of a young female art student and the relationship she undertakes with her professor. While this is by no means an original trope, Kylie Needham pursues it in such a raw and provocative, yet tender style. The ending of this story is unexpected and it will etch itself in your mind after you turn the last page. A stunning debut novel from Kylie Needham, an author that is capable of beautiful things to come.

[Julie Chamaa · Rating 5 out of 5]

Debut novels are so often surrounded by hype, glowing reviews and awards. Often, this can be off putting because the reader’s expectations then become correspondingly high. I picked up this book purely because l love art - and l was transfixed. This is a novel of beauty, grace and perfectly formed prose, so much so, that at times the language is poetic, stirring the feelings one sometimes gets when looking at a painting. The experiences of being an artist, finding inspiration via various sources, and using different mediums to convey multifarious ideas of beauty was simply mesmerising.

Australian scriptwriter, Kylie Needham’s debut novel ‘Girl in a Pink Dress’ certainly appealed to me because of its topic - the artist and muse relationship. Now, there is nothing particularly new here, except that the muse, Frances is also a budding and promising painter of landscapes. The artist, Clem from a renowned family of painters, lives a privileged existence and his favoured subject is portraiture and the human form. The narrative takes the reader through two time periods, two vastly different subjects and artistic forms with the experiences told from the perspective of the muse/artist:

“It felt curious to be both painter and sitter, artist and subject, observer and object.”

Frances experiences a lack of distance, between herself and the work and with her star rising the more established artist feels threatened, betrayed and unable to cope without the spotlight entirely upon him. Rather glum but probably apt insofar as the egoistic attitude of many creative types.

This is a quiet story of grace under fire from ambition and a refusal to compete. It is insightful, with sensitively drawn characters that make the story extremely believable. It will appeal to anyone who, like me, loves art.

Stunning! Five stars 🌟

[Neens West · Rating 4 out of 5]

I usually shy away from debut novels. Something about wanting to be in safe trustworthy hands of a well-seasoned author, rather than as the reader of a writer still honing their craft. Kylie Needham has made me rethink my prejudice!

At the Marion (ACT Writers) Literary Awards night, I purchased my copy after Girl in a Pink Dress was announced winner of the fiction category. I took a risk and it paid off.

It's a meditative book; don't expect a racing plot. Expect instead flourishing writing that conjures the isolation of an Australian bush town juxtaposed against the Sydney art scene. The setting acts as a poignant backdrop to the faltering relationship of two artists.

I had a slight issue with what I felt was in-your-face symbolism with the ending, but it did not detract from the overall reading experience.

This is an author I will be following with interest.

[Eliza · Rating 4 out of 5]

Needham takes us on a journey with Frances a female artist, who falls for her art lecturer. Whilst this may seem sterotypical, the journey Needham takes us on is anything but. Through Frances, Needham explores women in Australian art and how they have been viewed throughout history.

Whilst short, this novel has a lot to say within its pages.

[Amelia Wheeler · Rating 3 out of 5]

If I was an artist I think I would’ve gotten it more. Nice easy read. Woman in a man’s world fr. Some beautiful lines written. 3.75/5 🎨🎨🎨🎨

[Lisa · Rating 3 out of 5]

The writing is beautiful and vivid but it felt more short story to me and I wanted more.

[Emily · Rating 4 out of 5]

A short read. I enjoyed the character building in this.

[Heidi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very impressive debut novel, I raced through this one!

[Emily Rovelli · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nice little Australian novel. Bit quirky. Some beautiful writing. Different kind of novel. Liked the creativeness of the characters and their actions - such real conflicts and feelings explored.

[Fran Whiteman · Rating 3 out of 5]

A great insight into the art world & to hear about Clarice Beckett & her inspiration for the Frances’ painting. Lovely descriptive writing.
The reader Arlie Dodds was great to listen to.
Recommend

[Bronwyn · Rating 2 out of 5]

A decent 2-day read, but:

1. The chapters go from 60+ pages long, to roughly 18 pages long. Which annoys the pants off me.
2. The main character is naive, annoying, and dare I say it, a little boring.
3. The epilogue didn’t fit for some unbeknownst reason. Not because it unnerved me (I’ve grown up in country Victoria), but because I don’t think it was entirely necessary.
4. I struggled through the first 3 chapters to find any common ground with any of the characters. I feel like they were unfinished, somewhat.
5. If you’re an artist or art student, you may love this book. It just wasn’t my kind of thing.

This is beautifully written, albeit with annoying chapters and characters.

It’s great that the author has concentrated on how Clem is using her for her body, mind and creativity, but how she responds when she finds out he’s going to leave her, has been done 1,000’s of times.

For example:
She throws a tantrum in the middle of the night and burns his paintings. Then, when she has their baby, of course she names it after the narcissistic, abusing, manipulative father of said child because ‘she looks exactly like him’. God, if I could eye roll anymore, I’d lose my sight!

The novel didn’t really offer anything new to the genre, and there are plenty of other, better books you probably should spend your money on. One where the characters have more substance and you don’t fall asleep within the first 130 pages.

[Jillwilson · Rating 3 out of 5]

“What is fame? Her daughter tells her she’s a line in the now-famous Clem’s wikipedia page.” We first meet Frances at the retrospective by the acclaimed painter Clem Hughes. Frances is the model for the ‘Girl in a pink dress’ painting that Clem painted two decades ago. At that time, Frances was his lover as well as his student, and beginning her own painting career. Clem is the son of a noted Australian artist. He’s older than Frances and his art career is more established though he suffers in critical comparison to his father.

Each of the five sections of this short novel is situated by a title of a drawing or painting by Frances at a specific time in her life. She paints landscapes that have “accumulated a modest but dedicated following among the mature, well-off women of Sydney’s east: lips and nails painted coral red, diamond rings like boulders slipping sideways on arthritic fingers, voices like gravel that are accustomed to being heard.”

Needham is an award-winning screenwriter and she is married to Ben Quilty. Both these factors probably contribute to the exploration in this novel of how people go about making the best art and how they sustain relationships while working in the same artistic realm. And what happens if they have unequal amounts of status and power.

Early in the novel, Frances and Clem escape to an old goldmining town to find peace and make art. Clam struggles – and Frances is forced to give up some of her working time to help him because of a looming deadline for an exhibition. Of this period, one reviewer notes: “When not spending hours standing still till her feet go numb while the ‘genius’ breaks her down into planes of reflected light, she is priming and underpainting his canvases and is, of course, sexually available at all times, leaving frustratingly little time for her own work. I feel very close to Frances because I did the same thing: as an art student with a burning ambition to escape the claustrophobic beige suburbs of Brisbane, at the age of 18 I seduced my mentor, the art dealer Ray Hughes, 15 years my senior. I was certainly groomed by the canon to believe the artist requires a muse, a belief maintained by generations of male artists.” (https://newtownreviewofbooks.com.au/k...)

The idea that women often subdue their own needs and creative interests in order to cater for the man that they are with is reminiscent of the ideas explored in 'Stravinsky’s lunch', and of Anna Funder’s new book 'Wifedom'. But this novel feels quite fresh and what I liked most about the main character Frances is that she does not feel sorry for herself. This is not a victim narrative (though she does have a hard time of it) and there is a stunning act of agency towards the end of the novel that feels very satisfying (and shocking).

It's a short novel – I think this must be a trend at the moment having recently read 'Cold Enough for Snow' and 'Open Water'. I would have liked more – I was very engaged by the character of Frances and her circumstances – but I also appreciate the decision to make the book as focused as it is. I really enjoyed it.

[Pippy Beaven · Rating 5 out of 5]

absolutely raced through this!! i am always pre-disposed to love books about artists/about art/about the relationships between artists and their muses so it’s no surprise i loved it but i didn’t expect to love it quite this much! set in the barren wasteland of new south wales mountains (very nostalgic for me after spending 2 months travelling round aus), this book tells a story of love and rage, of betrayal and jealousy and talent and what it means to sacrifice your own work in order to become someone else’s muse. i also loved that it was told across two time periods, it felt so nostalgic and bittersweet when she was retelling her love affair.
loved loved loved everything about this <3

“the sunsets were pinker then. wider. gauzy bands of rich colour wipes across the sky like blush along a cheek. i don’t remember the floorboards creaking, even when we had sex on them. i don’t remember there being any dust.”

“remembering is not always a helpful thing.”

“i would have done anything clem asked, anything he wanted. it was as simple and undeniable as that. and perhaps it was this realisation - more than any horrific image he could have painted of me - that had paralysed me.”

“i withheld nothing. i yielded everything. i slipped into him. or he slipped into me. the lines had blurred.”

“i had been a willing and obedient model. a pliant and guileless lover. a passive, infatuated, unsophisticated girl prepared to do anything to keep him close. it struck me that what was j particular had condemned me - what must have seemed romantic and attractive to clem at the start but was now unacceptable to him, maybe even intolerable- was my being an artists too, potentially even a good one.”

5/5

[Kelly · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was a cover buy for me and it turned out to be an absolute gem of a book. Frances is compelled to make art - she paints landscapes that sell well - but is also known for being the girl in the pink dress, a portrait painted by her former lover, who is the son of a famous Australian artist. This book is very reflective, as Francis, now in her forties, looks back on her early twenties and what shifted for her during that time. The characters are beautifully fleshed out and the author does a stellar job of capturing nuances of what it means to be a working artist. As soon as I finished this book, I wanted to pick it up again, to re-read it with what I now know of how things panned out for Frances, so that I can pick up more of what is thrown down. This is exactly the type of book I love to read - lots of lush detail and very character-driven. I look forward to reading anything else Kylie Needham decides to write! Also, a big shout out to Airlie Dodds, who did such an excellent job at narrating the audiobook that I immediately looked up what else she has narrated because I could listen to her voice all day! 4.5 stars.

[Anne Chappel · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a gem of a book: short, tender and intense.
I enjoyed how it starts with Frances looking back on her life, while at an art show- a retrospective of the work of her one-time lover: a retrospective in two ways.
Is this a picture of me, she asks. Maybe? Maybe not? She sees the first image that he painted of her – that he said he would never sell, but he does sell. “a young woman in a pink dress against a cavernous background of bruised blues and bulky blacks”.
This image is how her lover chose to see her and we see how she comes to an understanding of what that vision is as she matures in her art and her love. Ambition is what drives Clem and Frances becomes a tool for his advancement.
She is not bitter as she looks back. Frances is an artist and has her own world. but she came to that understanding through pain and determination.
Contrast the art of Clem and Frances: his is ‘ugly’ bold and he desperately wants fame – to match Albert, his father’s fame. (His father sees Frances's talent early on.)
I loved how Frances observed the world. There is a delight in her writing and her descriptions.
This is a book to savour.

[Katie Lee · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really loved this book. It was concise, with not a single superfluous sentence. It was poetic and literary and unique.

It also had an informative overview of Australian female artists that I enjoyed.

I know people say not to judge a book by its cover - but genuinely the only reason I gave it four stars is because I found the cover art super jarring every time I picked it up. The cover is so divergent to how the book made me feel - a book about minimal subtle landscapes using muted colour palettes being represented with a portrait with a splash of red and the red back cover and the childlike capital writing just not at all the book that I just read. I would never have picked up this book if it wasn’t recommended to me.

[Toni Kely-Brown · Rating 4 out of 5]

I would describe this as a novella as its only 188 pages, but the writing is lovely and the story really rich and engaging. The narrator is an art student who reflects on her relationship with her art lecturer as a young woman. Clem is an artist who comes from art royalty as his father is a famous painter.

Frances wants to be an artist but is also Clem's muse. Can two artists be in a relationship, can a muse be an artist too, do women have to give up their artistic dreams for their partner and be unmarried or single to succeed? I really enjoyed insight to the Australian art world, its history, the artists, the art dealers and the clients.

[George · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 stars. A vividly and concisely written short novel about protagonist, Frances. Frances is in her forties and lives in country N.S.W. Twenty five years ago as a third year art student in Sydney, Frances has a relationship with her tutor, famous artist, ‘Clem’. Clem’s father Albert is a well known Australian artist. Is it possible for a relationship to survive when both partners are ambitious artists?

A compelling novel about love, art, sacrifice and ambition.

This book was first published in 2023. This novel won the 2024 MUD Literary Prize. Established in 2018, the MUD literary Prize has recognized the best first literary novel by an Australian author with a cash prize.

[Amanda Mergler · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book. Frances and Clem were beautifully drawn characters and I felt I knew and understood them both.

The sentences in this book are beautiful and the moving back and forward in time was handled superbly. I always knew where I was.

This story moved me. It was really emotional. I loved watching a young woman and artist develop from being naive and unsure of herself to confident and defiant.

A beautiful book.

[Marissa Eisenbrei · Rating 2 out of 5]

I expected more from this book. While the writing itself was decent, I expected more character development and a plot line that had more "umph". With that being said, the main character is raw, and honest and different from female leads in other books- I loved that. This book softly showcases the struggle every woman faces when it comes to "being enough" and also trying to propel a career whole staying true to yourself.

[Lyn Quilty · Rating 5 out of 5]

A short but exquisitely written novel. I felt as if I was seeing everything in close up, the descriptions focus on tiny details rather than big picture images. The character of Frances is sensitively drawn, a talented artist she falls under the spell of an older artist. Read the book to find out how her life unfolds.

[Corinne Johnston · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 upped because of the beauty of the writing. A slow to start, slow to end, slow gentle read. Doubt I will remember this in months or years to come. I found, as an Australian that I was envisaging Wendy and Brett Whitely as Frances and Clem, but decades after their own tumultuous meeting and life.

[Jan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Art student Frances connects with her tutor Clem and she becomes his muse, while struggling to develop her own art. In this debut novel, time shifts tell the story of their relationship. Can a woman be both muse and artist, even today? A good read by this author, looking forward to what she writes next.

[Jacqui Hinshaw · Rating 5 out of 5]

An impressive debut novel. The writing as beautiful as the paintings it describes. I particularly liked Frances’ realisation ‘But there was something else besides a child, it struck me in that moment, that most of the female painters I could think of had gone without….a husband….an alternative kind of child’

[Julia Cooper · Rating 5 out of 5]

Girl in a pink dress is gentle novel that is beautifully written. The novel follows two Sydney artists and touches on themes of love and ambition. Needham describes the world in a subtle yet clever way. This relatively short book was an absolute joy to read and I am amazed that this is a debut novel.