You may or may not know that when I was in school I studied Art History, which is what I earned my degree in. My fantasy job would have been to work in a museum (oh the Louvre perhaps or maybe the Centre Pompidou would have been pleasant to work at...), or even better to work in art restoration (a serious learning impediment to anything having to do with chemistry put a stop to that idea). Alas, I work in a library (good, but not my dream). The next best thing I guess, other than going to lots of museums at least, is to read about art. This has usually takes the form of reading fictional books about artists and in some cases artists and their muses (can you see I'm sinking deeper into cushy books? Not even art criticism or books about painters or particular historical movements).
My recent find is a book by Elizabeth Hickey called The Wayward Muse. It is about Dante Gabriel Rossetti a Pre-Raphaelite artist and his muse, Jane Burden. I am not terribly familiar with Rossetti and Burden, though I do know he was the brother of famous poet (poetess?) Christina Rossetti. I am, however, a fan of Pre-Raphaelite art (I need to find some other books in the library of Rossetti's art!). I have only started reading, but I am already intrigued by Burden. Although in the eyes of her family she is plain, verging on ugly, Rossetti calls her one of the most beautiful women has has seen. The problem with fiction and characters based on the lives of real people--is where does the truth end and the fiction begin? And how much really can be known about some of these people? Questions that perhaps can by answered by the author, as there is a chance that Elizabeth Hickey will guest blog here in the near future! I will let you know if it works out and when you can expect her post (I just need to get on with reading the book!).
I have read other books similar to this in the past, enjoyed and would recommend:
- The Painted Kiss by Elizabeth Hickey (this is about Viennese painter Gustav Klimt and his muse and friend/lover Emilie Floge--she was an artist and designer in her own right)
- Portrait of an Unknown Woman by Vanora Bennett (reviewed here) (fictional tale of Thomas More's family and Hans Holbein who painted the family's portrait)
- The Girl With a Pearl Earring and The Lady and the Unicorn by Tracy Chevalier (I suspect many people have also read The Girl With a Pearl Earring--a fictional story of Vermeer and his serving girl, Griet who becomes his assistant. I also enjoyed reading The Lady and the Unicorn--about the making of the six Medieval tapestries of the same name)
- Girl in Hyacinth Blue and The Forest Lover (reviewed here) by Susan Vreeland (Girl in Hyacinth Blue is a set of inter-related stories about a Vermeer painting following its provenance from the time it was painted to present day, and The Forest Lover is about Canadian painter Emily Carr and trials and tribulations she encountered trying to paint native subjects in the Victorian era, facing prejudices due to the subject of her art as well as her sex)
- The Flanders Panel by Arturo Perez-Reverte (I read this ages ago, so the details are a tad hazy, but this is a literary suspense/thriller about an art restorer trying to solve a mystery she finds in a 15th-century painting)
- The Music Lesson by Katharine Weber (this is another sort of literary thriller--about an art historian, the IRA and a famous Vermeer painting--notice Vermeer seems to turn up a lot in literature, doesn't he!)
- Lydia Cassatt Reading the Morning Paper by Harriet Scott Chessman (a lovely little book about Mary Cassatt and her sister Lydia, who was the subject of many of her paintings)
New and soon to be released books that I plan on buying (haven't heard or read much about them yet):
- Luncheon of the Boating Party by Susan Vreeland (Renoir and his famous painting "Luncheon of the Boating Party")
- Burning Bright by Tracy Chevalier (18th century London and painter William Blake)
Books that I own and have been waiting to be read!:
- Life Studies by Susan Vreeland (short stories)
- Passion of Artemesia by Susan Vreeland (Italian painter Artemisia Gentileschi)
- I Am Madame X by Gioia Diliberto (fictional tale of the woman who sat for John Singer Sargent's famous portrait)
- Strapless: John Singer Sargent and the Fall of Madame X by Deborah Davis (nonfiction--same subject matter as the book above)
Have I missed any really good ones?