Artists

[Melissa]

I'm looking for historical fiction on artists. I've already got Clara and Mr. Tiffany andFrida. Pretty much any artist or period would be good.

[Zoe]

Goya of Lion Feuchtwanger springs to mind.
An interesting and entertaining account of Goya and Spain around Napoleon's times :)

[Joseph]

Here are some of the historical fiction on artists books that I gave 5 stars:
Tracy Chevalier's Girl With a Pearl Earring and The Lady and the Unicorn
Sunflowers by Sheramy Bundrick

For other good reads, check out my art-themed fiction shelf: https://www.goodreads.com/review/list...

[Petra]

I could recommend these:

The Agony and the Ecstasy
The Swan Thieves
Sacré Bleu: A Comedy d'Art
The Forgery of Venus
The Muse of Edouard Manet
The Blood of Flowers
Lust for Life
Girl in Hyacinth Blue
The Passion of Artemisia

There's also this one but I haven't read it yet, so can't vouch for the story itself. It is, though, sitting on my bookshelf:
Loving Frank

[Lisasue]

I liked The Painted Girls and The Birth of Venus. I was not such a fan of The Swan Thieves, as I found it a little bit tedious,at least on audiobook. Of course, everyone is entitled to their opinions....

[Margaret]

The Art Forger by BA Shapiro has been ony to be read shelf for ages. It looks intriguing

[Shawn]

This one is on the Giveaways list for July 1:

Michelangelo: A Life in Six Masterpieces

[C.P.]

Margaret wrote: "The Art Forger by BA Shapiro has been ony to be read shelf for ages. It looks intriguing"

I really enjoyed The Art Forger. Give it a try. Others include Rachel Pastan's Alena, although it is not historical, and The House Girl, by Tara Conklin, which doesn't look as if it would be about an artist but is.

[Shawn]

Oh, I just remembered a great one I read several years ago about an gifted young artist growing up in the Hassidic Jewish faith, set in New York City in the 1950s. Of course its theme is religion vs art/individualism. Here it is:


My Name Is Asher Lev

[Shomeret]

One of the best HF novels I've read about artists is The Mask Carver's Sonby Alyson Richman. It deals with the conflict between a very traditional Japanese mask carver and his son who is an individualistic artist in the Western sense.

[Melissa]

Thanks for the suggestions!

[Gary]

I'll second Alyson Richman's The Mask Carver's Son. And there are fictional classics like Zola's The Masterpiece and Kipling's The Light That Failed.

The Masterpiece
The Light That Failed

I'll also reference my own The Flower to the Painter.
The Flower to the Painter

[Gail]

The Forest Lover

[Margaret]

What about The Lust for Life by Irving Stone on Van Gogh?

[Bryn]

The Ten Thousand Things has for lead a 14th century Chinese painter, Wang Meng.

[Susan]

In addition to the ones already named, Luncheon of the Boating Party

[Eileen]

Are you defining artists as only painters? If not, I would recommend The Women by . It is about the architect, Frank Lloyd Wright, and is one of the best pieces of historical fiction I have ever read. Boyle's writing is impeccable, but even more intriguing was the way he structured the story.

I know a fair amount about FLW and never found him to be (personally) a sympathetic individual. This book managed to make him sympathetic.