Tuesday 2 August 2011

(Mostly) Fictional Novels Featuring Art or Artists - A List

Like many painters, I have many books about art techniques, art history and books about individual artists, but sometimes I like to indulge in a little fiction.  

I especially enjoy listening to audible books as I paint and if the subject matter is also about art, then that is even better!

Here is a list of novels that have an arty theme that I have enjoyed recently: 

Girl with a Pearl Earring by Tracy Chevalier
The Stone Virgin by Barry Unsworth
Notes From An Exhibition by Patrick Gale
Provenance: How a Con Man and a Forger Rewrote the History of Modern Art by Laney Salisbury & Aly Sujo 


Other fictional novels with an art theme on my list that I would like to read:

The Passion of Artemisia: A Novel bySusan Vreeland
This author has several along this theme, so she would be worth checking out.

The Raphael Affair by Iain Pears
This author also has several on an art history crime theme.

The Forger by Paul Watkins
I love a good book about art forgery!

The Painting by Nina Schuyler
The Birth of Venus by Sarah Dunant
Tulip Fever by Deborah Moggach
Another author that works in a series, I understand.
I Am Madame X by Gioia Diliberto
I have been intending to read this since it was published.
The Portland Vase: The Extraordinary Odyssey of a Mysterious Roman Treasure by Robin Brooks
I like me a bit of history too.
The Illuminator by Brenda Rickman Vantrease
The Painted Kiss: A Novel by Elizabeth Hickey
I Was Vermeer: The Forger Who Swindled the Nazis by Frank Wynne
Not strictly fiction - but another fascinating forgery story!
Loot: Inside the World of Stolen Art by
Thomas McShane & Dary Matera
This might be hard to find - or you could steal a copy!
The Painter by Will Davenport
The Serpent Garden by Judith Merkle Riley
Leonardo's Swans by Karen Essex
She also has others along a historical theme
Stealing Athena by Karen Essex
The Chrysalis by Heather Terrell

Pale as the Dead: A Genalogical Mystery (Natasha Blake, Ancestor Detective, Book 1) by Fiona Mountain
Rembrandt's Whore by Sylvie Matton
An Artist of the Floating World by Kazuo Ishiguro
The Lost Painting: The Quest for a Caravaggio Masterpiece by Jonathan Harr
The Flanders Panel by Arturo Perez-Reverte, translated by Margaret Jull Costa 
The Tragic Muse by Henry James
The Art Fair by David Lipsky
Seek My Face by John Updike
The Botticelli Secret by Marina Fiorato
Sunflowers by Sheramy Bundrick

Phew!  That lot will keep me quiet for quite some time.  I have left out a few obvious ones like Dan Brown as well as Oscar Wilde, but if you have any you would like to suggest, I would be most grateful to hear from you.


Happy reading (and painting, of course)!

5 comments:

suzanneberry said...

great list, thank you!!! been wonderin what audiobook to listent o next..these sound like just what i've been looking for!

Keith Tilley said...

Thanks for that Rolina. That's a good list. I hadn't thought of looking for fiction with an art theme.

Caroline Simmill said...

I love audible books fantastic to get you rooted into the studio for a few hours of good painting. I recently listening to Paul Theroux's A dead hand and the brilliant Mosquito Coast. Philippa Gregory's The other queen about Mary Queen of Scots is what I am listening to at the moment. Thank you for your reading list!

Taylor said...

Thanks for the list! I enjoyed The Swan Thieves by Elizabeth Kostova, a fictional novel about an artist who becomes even more obsessed than most of us!

artfulzebra said...

Ooh, fab book list, thanks! I shall have a go at some of these! I've only read one of them (the Patrick Gale one) so plenty to choose from! ;o) The only one I can think of to add is Life Class by Pat Barker which I had on audio while I was working on a big piece of video tape work, funny how I can recall what I was listening to in the studio when making certain pieces. ;o)