JOHN JAMES AUDUBON
(1785-1851)

Creation, by Katherine Govier. Overlook, 2003, 02.
The darker side of the famed naturalist is revealed as the single-minded (and perhaps unfaithful) Audubon leaves his wife to embark on an ambitious expedition to Newfoundland and Labrador in order to document species of rare birds-- a task he accomplishes by the killing of his many subjects. He sails with Royal Navy Captain Henry Bayfield, who is determined to chart the dangerous Canadian coastline.

Further reading...
John James Audubon: The Making of an American, by Richard Rhodes.
Knopf, 2004.
[598.092 Audubon]

WILLIAM BLAKE
(1757-1827)

Other Sorrows, Other Joys, by Janet Warner. St. Martin's, 2003.
Catherine Boucher Blake searches for her own voice and identity as she lives in the shadow of her husband's eccentric genius and the avant-garde lifestyle (such as the concept of an "open" marriage) he advocates.

Burning Bright, by Tracy Chevalier. Dutton, 2007.
The Kellaway family moves to Georgia London where daughter Maisie is attracted to a libertine and son Jem becomes acquainted with Blake who openly supports the revolution taking place in France.

PETER BRUEGEL
(1525?-1569)

As Above, So Below, by Rudy Rucker. Tom Doherty, 2002.
Sci-fi writer Rucker tries his hand at historical fiction in his rendering of Bruegel's (of whom little is actually known) life, with each chapter built around the Flemish artist's paintings and a lively cast of supporting characters, including Bruegel's wife, Mayken, scheming Cardinal Grenvelle, in the 16th-century closet cartographer Abraham Ortelius, and Williblad Cheroo, an American Indian.

Further reading...
Pieter Bruegel, by Philippe & Francoise Roberts-Jones.
Abrams, 2002.
[759.9493 Bruegel R]

CARAVAGGIO
(1573-1610)

Doubting Thomas, by Atle Naess. Peter Owen, 2000.
In 1606, Caravaggio, a man possessed of a reckless and volatile temperament, has apparently killed a man in a duel and fled from Rome. A cleric investigating the mystery is beset with a variety of witnesses who offer both their slanted (seldom positive) insights into the artist and their self-serving theories about the murder.

Further reading...
M: The Man Who became Caravaggio, by Peter Robb.
Holt, 2000.
[759.5 Caravaggio R]

EMILY CARR
(1871-1945)

The Forest Lover, by Susan Vreeland. Viking, 2004.
Fictional portrayal spanning 20 years in the life of British Columbia painter and early feminist Emily Carr, who battled against the disapproval of her family and Victorian restrictions on the "proper" behavior of women to preserve the Indian heritage of the Pacific Northwest in her art.

MARY CASSATT
(1844-1926)

Impressionist, by Joan King. Beaufort, 1983.
Dissatisfied by what is considered "art," in her native Pennsylvania, budding painter Mary Cassatt travels to France where she is entranced first by the paintings of Degas, and then the artist himself.

Lydia Cassatt Reading the Morning Paper. 7Stories, 2001.
Inspired by five works by Mary Cassatt depicting her older sister, this novel tells the story of the relationship between the artist and the terminally ill Lydia.

Further reading...
Mary Cassatt: A Life, by Nancy Mowll Mathews.
Villard, 1994.
[B Cassatt M]

LEONARDO DA VINCI
(1452-1519)

Leonardo's Swans, by Karen Essex. Doubleday, 2006.
Sister Isabella and Beatrice d'Este become rivals for the romantic attentions of Beatrice's husband, the politically ambitious Ludovico Sforza of Milan, and the artistic attentions of court painter, Leonardo da Vinci.

EDGAR DEGAS
(1834-1917)

Marie, Dancing, by Carolyn Meyer. Gulliver, 2005.
Marie Van Goethem, the young girl who posed for the famous sculpture "Little Dancer, Aged Fourteen," tells her own story.

PAUL GAUGUIN
(1848-1903)

The Moon and Sixpence, by W. Somerset Maugham. Modern Library, 1919.
Based loosely on the life of Paul Gauguin, Maugham's classic tells the story of Charles Strickland, a middle-class British stockbroker, who abandons both his career and his family to pursue a simple life as an artist in Tahiti.

The Way to Paradise, by Mario Vargas Llosa. FSG, 2003.
Dual narratives alternate the stories of early feminist social activist Flora Tristan, who was of of mixed Peruvian and French heritage, and her grandson, the great French post-Impressionist painter, Paul Gauguin.

ARTEMISIA GENTILESCHI
(1593-1652/3)

The Passion of Artemisia, by Susan Vreeland. Viking, 2002.
After a being raped by her father's friend, painter Agnostino Tassi, then humiliated at his trial, Artemisia Gentileschi accepts an arranged marriage to artist Pietro Stiatessi, and moves with him to Florence. For a while all goes well, but eventually her superior talent (she becomes the first woman admitted to the Accademia dell' Arte del Disegno) drive a wedge between her and her husband.

HANS HOLBEIN
(c. 1497--1543)

Portrait of an Unknown Woman, by Victoria Bennett. Morrow, 2007.
In the year 1527, Hans Holbein comes to England, fleeing the Protestant Reformation. Over the next six years he paints nearly two identical portraits of the family of Sir Thomas Moore, a family that will be torn apart by the intrigue of Henry VIII's court .

FRIDA KAHLO & DIEGO RIVERA
(1907-1954 and 1886-1957)

Frida, by Barbara Mujica. Overlook, 2001.
Kahlo's younger sister, Cristina, tells of her relationship with her flamboyant, attention-grabbing older sibling.

The Incantation of Frida K., by Kate Braverman. 7Stories, 2002.
While lying on her deathbed, Frida ruminated about her tumultuous life--the trolley accident that left her mutilated, her marriage to ambitious and chronically unfaithful Diego Rivera, and her struggle to assert herself as a human and an artist in her own right.

ROCKWELL KENT
(1882-1971)

The Big Why, by Michael Winter. Bloomsbury, 2006.
Upon discovering that both his wife and mistress are pregnant, Kent (who had earned fame for his illustrations for Melville's Moby-Dick) removes himself to the coastal fishing village of Brigus, Newfoundland. At first the local are neighborly, but as world war approaches, the artist's socialist leanings and love of German music & poetry, raise their suspicions. Nor does his continued philandering, even after the arrival of his wife, win him any friends.

OSKAR KOKOSCHKA
(1886-1980)

The Silent Woman, by Susan Dodd. Morrow, 2001.
Shell-shocked and injured from the Great War, Austrian artist Kokoschka takes refuge in Dresden where he plans to to teach art at the local art academy. Unable to get over his passionate love affair with Alma Mahler, the beautiful and seductive widow of the great composer, who eventually spurned him, he tries to "hold onto her" by entering into a liaison with a shy housekeeper even as his mental state continues to erode.

GEORGES DE LA TOUR
(1593-1652)

La Tour Dreams of the Wolf Girl, by David Huddle. HM, 2003.
Moving between present and past, art historian Suzanne Nelson escapes her failing marriage by "imagining" a relationship La Tour had a with one of his models--a village girl with a strange wolf-patch of hair on her back and a penchant for tale-telling.

MICHELANGELO
(1475-1564)

The Agony and the Ecstasy, by Irving Stone. Doubleday, 1961.
Stone, the master of the biographical novel (see Camille Pissaro and Vincent Van Gogh below), brings the great Italian Renaissance artist to life as he struggles with with family, princes, popes, warring political factions, and other artists into order to bring his masterpieces to life.

ClAUDE MONET
(1840--1926)

In the Kingdom of Mists, by Jane Jakeman. BPC, 2004, 2002.
Definitely NOT a biographical novel, Jakeman's chilling book finds a number of fin-de-siecle Londoners (including Monet and his son) affected directly and indirectly by the murders of two young women whose bodies have been found in the Thames. Is it the work of the long silent Jack-the-Ripper?. Followed by: In the City of Dark Waters (2006).

CAMILLE PISSARRO
(1830-1903)

Depths of Glory, by Irving Stone. Doubleday, 1985.
St. Thomas-born Pissarro, who studied under Corot and Courbet, becomes the prime mover in a new (and much maligned) art movement known as Impressionism. Through years of poverty and despair, he remains true to his vision.

RAPHAEL
(1483-1520)

The Ruby Ring, by Diane Haeger. Three Rivers, 2005.
After the artist's sudden death, his former model and lover, Margherita Luti, a baker's daughter who is now an outcast from Roman society (Raphael had been betrothed to a powerful Cardinal's niece before falling in love with her), seeks to enter a nearby convent. But first she is told she must give up the ruby ring Raphael gave her.

REMBRANDT
(1606-1669)

The Painter, by Will Davenport. Bantam, 2003.
Amy Dale discovers a journal revealing the facts behind a duel that took place 300 years earlier when Rembrandt van Rijn challenged poet Andrew Marvell for the affection of Amy's ancestor Amelia Dahl.

AUGUSTE RENOIR
(1841-1919)

Luncheon of the Boating Party, by Susan Vreeland. Viking, 2007.
Renoir and the models (among them future wife Aline Charigot and Italian journalist Maggiolo Caillebotte) he used to create his now famous painting, which conveys the light-hearted leisurely mood of the Maison Fournaise as well as the character of mid- to late-nineteenth century French social structure, relates the events behind the two-months it took to finish.

AUGUSTE RODIN
(1840-1917)

Naked Came I, by David Weiss. Morrow, 1963.
A biographical novel about the life and loves of one of the greatest sculptors in history.

DANTE GABRIEL ROSSETTI
(1828-1882)

The Wayward Muse, by Elizabeth Hickey. Atria, 2007.
The life of plain, low-born Jane Burden's life is forever changed when the charismatic but scandalous Rossetti makes her his muse. After he abruptly abandons her, Jane marries his soft-spoken protege, William Morris.

JOHN SINGER SARGENT
(1856-1925)

I am Madame X, by Gioia Dillberto. Scribner, 2003.
When American painter John Singer Sargent unveiled his portrait of Virginie Gautreau at the 1884 Paris Salon, its subject's bold pose and provocative dress shocked the public and the critics, smashing Sargent's dreams of a Paris career. In this fictionalized memoir, Diliberto uses what little biographical information she could find about Gautreau and gives voice to a woman whose memory rests on this single painting.

VINCENT VAN GOGH
(1853-1890)

Lust For Life, by Irving Stone. Longmans, Green, 1934.
A fictionalized biography of the brilliant, passionate but troubled Dutch painter, who suffered from from recurrent bouts of mental illness and who produced all of his more than 2,000 works during the last ten years of his life. The novel was based on van Gogh's letters to his devoted brother, Theo, whose unfailing financial support allowed the artist to devote himself entirely to painting.

Van Gogh's Bad Cafe: A Love Story, by Frederic Tuten. Morrow, 1997.
In a love story that bridges two centuries, Louis, a lonely photographer living in 20th century NYC, meets a girl named Ursuala who claims that she is the love of Vincent van Gogh's life.

The Last Van Gogh, by Alyson Richman. Berkley, 2006.
In the summer of 1890, Van Gogh arrives at the bucolic French village of Auvers-sur-Oise, to undergo medical treatment at the hands of a homeopathic physician (and art lover) Dr. Gachet. There he encounters Gachet's daughter, who is attracted to him. He is equally smitten, but it is a love that can never be.

JOHANNES VERMEER
(1632-1675)

Girl with a Pearl Earring, by Tracy Chevalier. Dutton, 1999.
16-year-old Griet is hired to work as a domestic in the Vermeer household and becomes the inspiration for one of the artist's most celebrated paintings, much to the dismay of the emotionally volatile and jealous Madame Vermeer.

Girl in Hyacinth Blue, by Susan Vreeland. M&B, 1999.
Follows the trail of all those who come into contact with an "unknown" painting by the Dutch master from the time of its creation in 17th-century Holland to the present day.

Created and maintained by: Lynne M. Kennedy.

© Copyright 2007, 1999, Sachem Public Library. All rights reserved.

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