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Artists

Posted: Tue July 18th, 2017, 10:13 pm
by Kerry
I loved Tracy Chevalier's The Girl with the Pearl Earring. Does anyone know of any other novels that look into periods of art history?

Re: Artists

Posted: Wed July 19th, 2017, 4:06 pm
by MLE (Emily Cotton)
Susan Vreeland writes about artists. Also this one on Van Gogh https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_ss_f ... Y3VECBVXDY

Re: Artists

Posted: Wed July 19th, 2017, 10:03 pm
by Vanessa
Van Gogh spent some time in a sanitarium and here's a book, Let Me Tell You About a Man I Knew by Susan Fletcher which looks at that. I enjoyed it.



Another couple of books I enjoyed about art are The Golden tulip by Rosalind Laker and The Birth of Venus by Sarah Dunant.

https://www.fantasticfiction.com/l/rosa ... -tulip.htm
https://www.fantasticfiction.com/d/sara ... -venus.htm

Re: Artists

Posted: Thu July 20th, 2017, 2:20 am
by Susan
Tracy Chevalier also wrote The Lady and the Unicorn, her answer to the mystery of the medieval tapestries that are in the Cluny Museum in Paris - except when I visited the Cluny Museum. We went through the whole museum and didn't see them. When we asked a guard where they were, he said they were on loan to a museum in Japan. :-(

Way back in high school, I read The Agony and the Ecstasy: A Biographical Novel of Michelangelo by Irving Stone

Also recommended:
Claude & Camille: A Novel of Monet by Stephanie Cowell
The Painted Girls by Cathy Marie Buchanan (inspired by the real-life model for Degas’s Little Dancer Aged Fourteen)

Here's a link to historical novels about artists: http://www.historicalnovels.info/Artists.html

Re: Artists

Posted: Thu July 20th, 2017, 11:59 am
by Lisa
Susan wrote:Tracy Chevalier also wrote The Lady and the Unicorn, her answer to the mystery of the medieval tapestries that are in the Cluny Museum in Paris - except when I visited the Cluny Museum. We went through the whole museum and didn't see them. When we asked a guard where they were, he said they were on loan to a museum in Japan. :-(
This happened to us as well! We must have visited around the same time. The rest of the museum was excellent, but I was disappointed not to see the tapestries.

Re: Artists

Posted: Thu July 20th, 2017, 1:17 pm
by Susan
Lisa wrote:
Susan wrote:Tracy Chevalier also wrote The Lady and the Unicorn, her answer to the mystery of the medieval tapestries that are in the Cluny Museum in Paris - except when I visited the Cluny Museum. We went through the whole museum and didn't see them. When we asked a guard where they were, he said they were on loan to a museum in Japan. :-(
This happened to us as well! We must have visited around the same time. The rest of the museum was excellent, but I was disappointed not to see the tapestries.
I guess we'll have to go to Paris again! :D

Re: Artists

Posted: Thu July 20th, 2017, 1:25 pm
by Madeleine
It also happened to a work colleague, who went at the same time and found they weren't there! Would be lovely if they ever came to London ;)

Re: Artists

Posted: Thu July 20th, 2017, 3:48 pm
by princess garnet
Wow, I didn't think the tapestries would go on tour! I saw them in 2004 and 2012. They were cleaned and restored not too long ago.

Of interest, I checked the Musee de Cluny website and found an English language description of a tour that includes the famed tapestries:
http://www.musee-moyenage.fr/activites/ ... ieces.html

Re: Artists

Posted: Fri July 21st, 2017, 9:58 am
by Lisa
Susan wrote:
Lisa wrote:
Susan wrote:Tracy Chevalier also wrote The Lady and the Unicorn, her answer to the mystery of the medieval tapestries that are in the Cluny Museum in Paris - except when I visited the Cluny Museum. We went through the whole museum and didn't see them. When we asked a guard where they were, he said they were on loan to a museum in Japan. :-(
This happened to us as well! We must have visited around the same time. The rest of the museum was excellent, but I was disappointed not to see the tapestries.
I guess we'll have to go to Paris again! :D
Yup! I would be happy to see the rest of the museum again anyway. Then the little garden outside is a lovely quiet spot to have a picnic lunch :)

Re: Artists

Posted: Mon August 14th, 2017, 2:59 pm
by Margaret
There's a ton of novels about artists. I made a list a few years ago and posted it here. It's in two parts. Part I starts with the excellent Girl With a Pearl Earring and covers prehistory through the 17th century; Part II covers the 18th and 19th centuries and overlaps a bit into the early 20th century with Gustav Klimt. I haven't updated it in a while, so novels written in the last few years don't appear on it yet - but there's still plenty to choose from!