A work of art can fire my imagination like nothing else. If I’m feeling stuck
during the writing process, I look at a painting from the period I’m writing
about and it’s usually enough to help me: a way into another place and
time.
Looking at paintings was a central part of the research for my second book,
The Widow’s Confession, a murder mystery set in a Kent seaside resort in 1851 –
and not just because one of the characters is a painter. Ramsgate Sands (Life at
the Seaside) by William Powell Frith was an influence during the genesis of the
book, with its depiction of Victorian holidaymakers at play. But a range of
paintings helped throughout the writing process: the seas and skies of Turner’s
work for atmosphere; the detailed crowd scenes by Frith for costume and
Victorian spectacle; and the beautiful but empty-eyed pre-Raphaelite stunners
for ideals of feminine beauty.
Writing and art have been intertwined since time immemorial, but even as
separate disciplines, they are natural kindling for each other: whether a work
of art is the creative jump-start for a novel, a research source or a structural
element in the plot.
Here’s my selection of novels that have drawn on works of art – some real,
some imaginary – for fuel.
1. The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde
(1891)
Wilde’s fin de siècle novel about a beautiful young man whose portrait grows
old in a locked room while he stays young is a glorious indulgence of a read.
When a besotted Basil Hallward paints the beautiful Dorian Gray, he fears that
he has put too much of his own soul into the portrait. But it is Dorian,
influenced by the fascinating sensualist, Lord Henry, who has gifted the
painting something of himself. As the portrait ages, but Dorian does not, he
becomes “a face without a heart”, seeking sensation and pleasure at any cost.
Wilde’s depiction of the brittle, hedonistic world of eternal youth drips with
decadence. The wittiest horror story ever written.
2. To the Lighthouse by
Virginia Woolf (1927)
Woolf’s stream-of-consciousness meditation on life, love and the nature of
memory is also a story about the uncertainty and struggle of creativity. In a
summer when various guests come to stay with the Ramsays and their children, one
guest, Lily Briscoe, begins a painting featuring Mrs Ramsay, who is the focus of
her guests’ adoration. Ten years later, after Mrs Ramsay’s death, Lily returns
and completes the painting, as the remainder of the family travels to the
lighthouse. In the process she finds a way back into her memories of that
summer, and her realisation that her beloved Mrs Ramsay had a way of drawing
moments of revelation out of everyday life; she could make “life stand still” as
an artist does.
3. Girl With a Pearl Earring by Tracy Chevalier
(1999)
The book that inspired a play, a film and thousands of mini-breaks to The
Hague. Looking at the Vermeer painting of the same name, Chevalier was inspired
by the latent intensity of the sitter’s gaze as it meets the viewer/artist. From
this she creates the story of Griet, a servant girl who, through her interest in
art, becomes close to her employer, Johannes Vermeer. The influence of
Netherlandish art is clear in Chevalier’s luminous version of Delft and her
subtle portrait of love and loss, as coolly lit as one of Vermeer’s
paintings.
4. The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt (2013)
Theo Decker’s mother shows him her favourite painting in the Metropolitan
Museum of Art, and is killed moments later by an explosion. Theo survives, and
is urged to take the painting – The Goldfinch by Carel Fabritius – by a dying
man. As the years pass, Theo secretly keeps it with him, a symbol of purity and
a link with his mother, in a troubled life. Tartt’s story of the power of a
single painting, and of art as a whole, is delivered in dense, crackling
prose.
5. My Name is Red by Orhan Pamuk, translated by Erdağ Göknar (1998;
translated 2001)
A vivid, multi-voiced story of 16th-century Istanbul centring around the
murder of a miniaturist who is working on a secret book for the sultan. But this
is no straightforward murder mystery; Pamuk explores death, love and the nature
of Islamic art with immediacy and an awareness of its cultural resonance. A book
which, like the best art, can be read on many levels.
6. The Moon and
Sixpence by W Somerset Maugham (1919)
Charles Strickland, a stockbroker, deserts his wife and children to become a
painter in Paris and Tahiti. Maugham’s writer-narrator observes Strickland’s
story with puzzled bewilderment as he destroys the lives of those around him
without qualms. Influenced by the life and work of Gauguin, this is a portrayal
of the artist as monster, fuelled by a quasi-religious obsession to paint no
matter what the consequences. Best read with a shot of absinthe.
7. Headlong
by Michael Frayn (1999)
Following a single glance at an unidentified painting at his country
neighbour’s house, Martin Clay believes he has discovered a lost painting by
Bruegel the Elder. His machinations and expectations grow more grandiose,
sending his life and marriage into disarray. Formidable art-historical research
wrapped up in comedy.
8. Girl Reading by Katie Ward (2011)
This debut novel is comprised of seven sections, each based on a separate
woman and her portrait. Ward spans six centuries and proves a deft creator of
atmosphere, establishing each of her seven scenarios in moments with precision
and sensitivity. Exploring art, reading and what it means to be a woman in the
past, present and future, this is a haunting read.
9. The Daughter of Time by
Josephine Tey (1951)
“I can’t remember any murderer … who looked like him.” So says Alan Grant, a
police inspector recovering from an operation in hospital, who is given a pile
of portraits by a friend to keep him occupied. Grant considers himself an expert
on faces, and is intrigued by one particular portrait, soliciting opinions from
his doctor, nurses and visitors. When he discovers that the face belongs to
Richard III, he decides to research the mystery of the princes in the Tower.
This most unconventional of detective stories is enthralling and, for the
record, I agree with him about that portrait.
10. Pride and Prejudice by Jane
Austen (1813)
One of our most treasured love stories, Pride and Prejudice is not a novel
saturated with art, but a portrait provides one of its most important moments.
When Elizabeth Bennet visits Pemberley (arguably a work of art in its own right,
which may have been based on Chatsworth House) she begins to change her mind
about Mr Darcy, the suitor she has previously spurned. A pivotal moment comes
when she sees his portrait in the gallery. “She stood several minutes before the
picture in earnest contemplation.” Possibly the moment she falls in love, which
just goes to show that art changes lives in all kinds of ways.
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