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Artists

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Kerry
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Currently reading: The Muse
Interest in HF: Have always loved it. Just listened to the Reith Lectures by Hilary Mantel. So inspired that I've written my own HF novel set in turn-of-the-century Vienna. I'm interested in all fiction and love historical fiction that's well-written and brings the past to life.
Favourite HF book: Wolf Hall.
Preferred HF: No. The way the novel is written is more important than the period it discusses.
Location: Bristol

Artists

Post by Kerry » Tue July 18th, 2017, 10:13 pm

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?

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MLE (Emily Cotton)
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Joined: August 2008
Interest in HF: started in childhood with the classics, which, IMHO are HF even if they were contemporary when written.
Favourite HF book: Prince of Foxes, by Samuel Shellabarger
Preferred HF: Currently prefer 1600 and earlier, but I'll read anything that keeps me turning the page.
Location: California Bay Area

Re: Artists

Post by MLE (Emily Cotton) » Wed July 19th, 2017, 4:06 pm

Susan Vreeland writes about artists. Also this one on Van Gogh https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_ss_f ... Y3VECBVXDY

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Vanessa
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Currently reading: The Farm at the Edge of the World by Sarah Vaughan
Interest in HF: The first historical novel I read was Katherine by Anya Seton and this sparked off my interest in this genre.
Favourite HF book: Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell!
Preferred HF: Any
Location: North Yorkshire, UK

Re: Artists

Post by Vanessa » Wed July 19th, 2017, 10:03 pm

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
currently reading: My Books on Goodreads

Books are mirrors, you only see in them what you already have inside you ~ The Shadow of the Wind

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Susan
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Location: New Jersey, USA

Re: Artists

Post by Susan » Thu July 20th, 2017, 2:20 am

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
~Susan~
~Unofficial Royalty~
Royal news updated daily, information and discussion about royalty past and present
http://www.unofficialroyalty.com/

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Lisa
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Favourite HF book: Here Be Dragons by Sharon Kay Penman
Preferred HF: Any time period/location. Timeslip, usually prefer female POV. Also love Gothic melodrama.
Location: Northeast Scotland

Re: Artists

Post by Lisa » Thu July 20th, 2017, 11:59 am

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.

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Susan
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Location: New Jersey, USA

Re: Artists

Post by Susan » Thu July 20th, 2017, 1:17 pm

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
~Susan~
~Unofficial Royalty~
Royal news updated daily, information and discussion about royalty past and present
http://www.unofficialroyalty.com/

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Madeleine
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Currently reading: "Mania" by L J Ross
Preferred HF: Plantagenets, Victorian, crime, dual time-frame
Location: Essex/London

Re: Artists

Post by Madeleine » Thu July 20th, 2017, 1:25 pm

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 ;)
Currently reading "Mania" by L J Ross

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princess garnet
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Location: Maryland

Re: Artists

Post by princess garnet » Thu July 20th, 2017, 3:48 pm

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

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Lisa
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Favourite HF book: Here Be Dragons by Sharon Kay Penman
Preferred HF: Any time period/location. Timeslip, usually prefer female POV. Also love Gothic melodrama.
Location: Northeast Scotland

Re: Artists

Post by Lisa » Fri July 21st, 2017, 9:58 am

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 :)

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Margaret
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Interest in HF: I can't answer this in 100 characters. Sorry.
Favourite HF book: Checkmate, the final novel in the Lymond series
Preferred HF: Literary novels. Late medieval and Renaissance.
Location: Catskill, New York, USA
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Re: Artists

Post by Margaret » Mon August 14th, 2017, 2:59 pm

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!
Browse over 5000 historical novel listings (probably well over 5000 by now, but I haven't re-counted lately) and over 700 reviews at www.HistoricalNovels.info

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