18th and 19th Century Artists

[Margaret]

I've just posted Part II of my article "Historical Novels about Artists" at http://www.HistoricalNovels.info/Artists-II.html. Part I (at http://www.HistoricalNovels.info/Artists.html) covers novels about artists up through the 17th century, and Part II covers artists of the 18th and 19th centuries. A surprising number of novels about Goya (18th c.) have been written and there are lots of novels about Impressionist painters (19th) among the great variety of these novels.

If you know of any novels I've left out, do let me know! I'm also developing lists of novels about twentieth century artists, about sculptors, about fictional artists (historical novels only) and artists from elsewhere in the world than Europe and North America.

[annis]

Another interesting article, Margaret, thanks.
Btw, does anyone know of a novel featuring Jacques-Louis David (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacques-Louis_David), French Revolutionary artist and Napoleon's stage-manager? He made a brief appearance in Katherine Neville's book "The Eight", but i was wondering if he might have appeared elsewhere in fiction.

[princess garnet]

He's mentioned in Sandra Gulland's Josephine B trilogy

[Julianne Douglas]

My friend Sheramy Bundrick has a new novel on Vincent Van Gogh, The Sunflowers, coming out from Avon/HarperCollins in September 2009. You can read about the book here (http://vangoghschair.blogspot.com/2008/06/some-very-novel-news.html). Sheramy is an art historian who posts frequently about Van Gogh and his artist friends on her website Van Gogh's Chair (http://vangoghschair.blogspot.com).

And if I'm not mistake, the artist David is a character in Catherine Delors's forthcoming novel, For the King. I'll check with her and perhaps she can tell you more.

[Margaret]

Thanks for letting us know about The Sunflowers, Julianne. We're long overdue for another fictional look at Van Gogh. Will Sheramy be sending ARCs to online reviewers?

[Sheramy]

Hi Margaret,

Julianne suggested I join the Forum and reply to this thread. :-)
I hope to have ARCs sent to online reviewers. I haven't had any conversations yet with the marketing people to find out how things work. I would assume they would encourage such a move -- bloggers are so key these days, and there are some terrific sites out there.

Thanks for the plug, Julianne!

Sheramy

[Julianne Douglas]

Hey, Sheramy, glad you found us!

[Margaret]

Hi, Sheramy, and welcome. Congratulations on SUNFLOWERS - and do let us know when you have more news about ARC availability.

[donroc]

Pierre Le Mure's Moulin Rouge about Toulouse-Lautrec (on which the film with José Ferrer was based) is still a good read.

[Sheramy]

Will do, Margaret. Thank you.

[Catherine Delors]

David appears as a secondary character in my new novel, For The King (pub date 2009.) He is seen putting the finishing touches to what may be his most famous painting: Bonaparte crossing the Alps.

http://blog.catherinedelors.com/2008/04/04/my-second-novel-for-the-king.aspx

This gives me the idea of a blog post on him. A very complex and interesting man and artist, he probably deserves to be the protagonist of his own historical novel.

Funny tidbit: my editor had never heard of him, and asked me why on earth he didn't have a last name. Then she googled him.

[Sheramy]

I've thought that as well, Catherine: That David would make a fascinating protagonist for a novel. Great art plus all kinds of politics = a good story. One wouldn't need to embellish much of anything: the real thing has enough twists and turns to carry a few hundred pages!

[Catherine Delors]

Plus David's personal life is very interesting, with his divorce followed by remarriage (to the same lady.) A very strong marriage, apparently. Plus he obviously had trouble with his self-image: look how more "normal" his self-portrait looks, compared with other artists' depictions of his face. Foreshadowing of Vincent? ;)

I have been thinking of that blog post on him, and realizing that I needed to break it down into several installments to make it manageable. Only problem for me is that my 3rd book is about an 18th century serial killer. So Book 4, unless you beat me to it?

The amount of research involved is tremendous, because it overlaps the political evolution of France during the Old Regime, the Revolution, and the Empire. So it will take a brave soul to tackle this...

And thanks for the idea of the exhibition roundup at Van Gogh's Chair. I completed it for Paris on my blog. Huge amount of work, but great to plan my own outings this fall. http://blog.catherinedelors.com/2008/09/23/paris-exhibitions-the-fall-2008-lineup.aspx

[Sheramy]

David had some kind of tumor on his cheek that if I recall (digging deep into the ole memory here), started as a wound in a duel. He could not speak clearly as a result, which frustrated him during his Jacobin activities, when he would have liked to do more public speaking. It is interesting that he does indeed downplay the deformity in his self-portraits, but if you look very closely, one cheek is slightly swollen.

You've got it right that a novel based on David would be a huge undertaking. HUGE. It's certainly not in my plans, at least not at the moment: I think getting into his head and doing him well would be very hard. I'm not sure if I want to write something from a male POV; not sure I could. Especially not that particular male with all his political shenanigans. I'd like to try Toulouse-Lautrec sometime. ;)

Simon Schama's World of Art episode on David's Death of Marat is an excellent David documentary, by the way. Very very good.

Now I'm heading to your blog to check out your Paris post... :)

[Catherine Delors]

Saw that! Thanks, Sheramy.
Then neither of us will write the definitive HF on David, and I'll be content with a few blog posts...

[annis]

Sorry that David won't be getting his own novel, Catherine, but I'll certainly be checking out your blog entries and also your new novel when it comes out :)

[Catherine Delors]

Thanks so much, Annis. I will post a reminder here when I get around to doing these David entries.

[annis]

I'd appreciate that, Catherine, thanks.

[Sheramy]

I just read that Stephanie Cowell's new novel "The Green Dress," about the young Claude Monet and his model/mistress Camille, was picked up by Crown for spring 2010 publication. I read her "Marrying Mozart" a while ago and enjoyed it; I'm interested to see what she does with Monet. It's great material to work with!

[Susan]

I just read that Stephanie Cowell's new novel "The Green Dress," about the young Claude Monet and his model/mistress Camille, was picked up by Crown for spring 2010 publication. I read her "Marrying Mozart" a while ago and enjoyed it; I'm interested to see what she does with Monet. It's great material to work with!

Thanks for posting this. I also enjoyed Cowell's Marrying Mozart and a novel about a young Claude Monet sounds intriguing.

[chuck]

Years ago I saw a 1988 French Film called Camille Claudel; Isabelle Adjani and Gerard Depardieu.....Really interesting, very sad and disturbing..... beautifully filmed...Claudel and Rodin's had a very interesting, passionate, tempestuous relationship.....Regarding novels about them...... the 1963 David Weiss novel about August Rodin; probably very hard to find and Camille Claudel by Alma H Bond......

[Sheramy]

I read in PW last week about a novel to come out in Spring 2010 called Dancing for Degas, by Kathryn Wagner. I'm guessing from the blurb that it's about the model for 'Little Dancer, age 14,' Degas' famous bronze sculpture. I figured there'd be a book about her sometime! :-) I'm curious to see what Wagner's done with her story.

[Margaret]

Sounds interesting. Several of these novels are about painters and "artists" in other mediums. Dance and art could be a nice combination in a novel - the visual and the kinetic.

[Margaret]

Just reviewed another novel about a French Impressionist - Claude & Camille by Stephanie Cowell (see review (http://www.HistoricalNovels.info/Claude-and-Camille.html)). It's about Claude Monet and the woman who became his first wife. The Impressionists seem to have really captured novelists' imaginations lately!

[Catherine Delors]

Just reviewed another novel about a French Impressionist - Claude & Camille by Stephanie Cowell (see review (http://www.HistoricalNovels.info/Claude-and-Camille.html)). It's about Claude Monet and the woman who became his first wife. The Impressionists seem to have really captured novelists' imaginations lately!

I have begun reading it, Margaret, and am to host a guest post from Stephanie in a few days. You do a very good job of explaining the themes of the novel, but did you like it?

[Margaret]

I have begun reading it, Margaret, and am to host a guest post from Stephanie in a few days. You do a very good job of explaining the themes of the novel, but did you like it?

Well, I felt a bit tepid about this one. My personal style of reviewing is to try, as much as possible, to describe the book well enough that someone who would like it will be inspired to read it, while someone who would not will pass it by (a more aspirational than realistic goal, most of the time, but still worth aiming for, I think). Claude and Camille leans toward the historical romance style, except that it spends too much time on Monet's passion for his art to be a romance novel - and I really doubt that Cowell intended to write a romance. I think that, personally, I would have felt more excited by this novel if Cowell had fully immersed me in Monet's point of view and not tried to make it a love story at all. Although it is told entirely from Monet's point of view, I felt like there was a pulling back from some of the times when Monet's feelings about Camille must have segued into fury (perhaps for long periods) because the responsibility of providing for a wife and child pulled him away from his ability to devote himself utterly to his art. The novel avoids that - it goes as far as letting him feel a bit frustrated with her for brief periods, but it never pulls out all the stops the way I would have liked.

On the other hand, some readers would undoubtedly enjoy the novel much less if Camille's role in the novel were darkened in this way. I think a lot of readers are not looking for the more literary (brutally honest?) style that I'm drawn to, and I don't want to put them off reading this novel if it's one they would enjoy. It's certainly very well researched and skillfully written, and I think a lot of readers will enjoy it very much.

[Catherine Delors]

Well, I felt a bit tepid about this one.

This is how it came across, Margaret. Your review gives an excellent overview of the book, as far as I can tell so far, but lacks the little spark of enthusiasm. I tend myself to like plenty of darkness and violence in the novels I read (and write.) :)

[Margaret]

It's always nice to be on the same wavelength with someone. I'm not too surprised that we would be, because I enjoyed Mistress of the Revolution quite a lot (and reviewed it at www.HistoricalNovels.info (http://www.historicalnovels.info/Mistress-of-the-Revolution.html) back in the days when I was checking books out of the library for review purposes). I'm looking forward to For the King, which is supposed to be wending its way to me very shortly. :)

[boswellbaxter]

Moved the posts on ARC's here:

http://www.historicalfictiononline.com/forums/showthread.php?t=3315

[Catherine Delors]

Quite right, BoswellBaxter, we were sadly off topic. :)