Well, here we are again; another year, another lockdown and that means the gallery is still closed to the public. In the meantime, we’re here with another selection of novels about artists, or with art-based themes, that might help fill that gallery-shaped void in your life. So, if you were given books tokens for Christmas (you lucky people), prepare to redeem them now!
With all non-essential shops closed (I know, how are bookshops non-essential?) you can pick them up at your favourite online shopping mega corporation, or, if you prefer, you can find most of them on Hive, a network of local booksellers.
First up, we’ve got…
The Hare with the Amber Eyes by Edmund de Waal
Cover © Vintage Publishing
Wood and ivory carvings, none of them bigger than a matchbox: Edmund de Waal was entranced when he first encountered the collection in his great uncle Iggie's Tokyo apartment.
When he later inherited the 'netsuke', they unlocked a story far larger and more dramatic than he could ever have imagined. From a burgeoning empire in Odessa to fin de siècle Paris, from occupied Vienna to Tokyo, Edmund de Waal traces the netsuke's journey through generations of his remarkable family against the backdrop of a tumultuous century.
Last time, we recommended Jessie Burton’s The Miniaturist. Well, here she is again…
The Muse by Jessie Burton
cover © Picador Books
On a hot July day in 1967, Odelle Bastien climbs the stone steps of the Skelton gallery in London, knowing that her life is about to change forever. Having struggled to find her place in the city since she arrived from Trinidad five years ago, she has been offered a job as a typist under the tutelage of the glamorous and enigmatic Marjorie Quick. But though Quick takes Odelle into her confidence, and unlocks a potential she didn't know she had, she remains a mystery – no more so than when a lost masterpiece with a secret history is delivered to the gallery.
The truth about the painting lies in 1936 and a large house in rural Spain, where Olive Schloss, the daughter of a renowned art dealer, is harbouring ambitions of her own. Into this fragile paradise come artist and revolutionary Isaac Robles and his half-sister Teresa, who immediately insinuate themselves into the Schloss family, with explosive and devastating consequences.
Next up, a story that takes place in the run up to the great Art Treasures Exhibition of 1857, held here in Manchester…
The Street Philosopher by Matthew Plampin.
cover © Harper Collins Publishers
Ambitious young journalist Thomas Kitson arrives at the battlefields of the Crimea as the London Courier's man on the ground.
It is a dangerous place, full of the worst horrors of war but Kitson is determined to make his mark.
Under the tutelage of his hard-bitten Irish boss Cracknell, and assisted by artist Robert Styles, he sets about exposing the incompetence of the army generals. Two years later, as Sebastopol burns, Thomas returns to England under mysterious circumstance.
Desperate for forget the atrocities of the Crimea, he takes a job as a 'street philosopher', a society writer reporting on the gossip of the day.
But on the eve of the great Art Treasures Exhibition, as Manchester prepares to welcome Queen Victoria, Thomas's past returns to haunt him in the most horrifying way...
If your tastes run to darker stories, you could do worse than check out…
The Collector by John Fowles
cover © Vintage Publishing
Withdrawn, uneducated and unloved, Frederick collects butterflies and takes photographs. He is obsessed with a beautiful stranger, art student Miranda. Coming into unexpected money, he buys a remote Sussex house and calmly abducts Miranda, believing she will grow to love him in time.
Alone and desperate, Miranda must struggle to understand her captor if she is to gain her freedom…
More miniaturists this time, but not a Jessie Burton in sight as we visit the Ottoman Empire…
My Name is Red by Orhan Phamuk
cover © Faber & Faber
The Sultan secretly commissions a great book: a celebration of his life and the Ottoman Empire, to be illuminated by the best artists of the day - in the European manner. In Istanbul at a time of violent fundamentalism, however, this is a dangerous proposition. Even the illustrious circle of artists are not allowed to know for whom they are working. But when one of the miniaturists is murdered, their Master has to seek outside help. Did the dead painter fall victim to professional rivalry, romantic jealousy or religious terror?
With the Sultan demanding an answer within three days, perhaps the clue lies somewhere in the half-finished pictures . . .
From Turkey's winner of the Nobel Prize and author of Istanbul and The Museum of Innocence, this novel is a thrilling murder mystery set amid the splendour of Istanbul and the Ottoman Empire. Part fantasy and part philosophical puzzle, My Name is Red is also a stunning meditation on love, artistic devotion and the tensions between East and West.
Or, if you prefer, we can offer you a classic (or should that be a masterpiece?) based on Zola’s friendship with Cezanne. …
The Masterpiece by Emile Zola
cover © Oxford University Press
The Masterpiece is the tragic story of Claude Lantier, an ambitious and talented young artist from the provinces who has come to conquer Paris and is conquered by the flaws in his own genius. While his boyhood friend Pierre Sandoz becomes a successful novelist, Claude's originality is mocked at the Salon and turns gradually into a doomed obsession with one great canvas. Life - in the form of his model and wife Christine and their deformed child Jacques - is sacrificed on the altar of Art. The Masterpiece is the most autobiographical of the twenty novels in Zola's Rougon-Macquart series. Set in the 1860s and 1870s, it provides a unique insight into his career as a writer and his relationship with Cézanne, a friend since their schooldays in Aix-en-Provence. It also presents a well-documented account of the turbulent Bohemia world in which the Impressionists came to prominence despite the conservatism of the Academy and the ridicule of the general public.
If you’d rather read short stories than novels this one might appeal. It’s a collection of stories inspired by the paintings of American artist, Edward Hopper.
In Sunlight or in Shadow, edited by Laurence Block
cover © Pegasus Books
"Edward Hopper is surely the greatest American narrative painter. His work bears special resonance for writers and readers." Says Lawrence Block, who has invited seventeen outstanding writers to join him in an unprecedented anthology of brand new stories.
The results are remarkable and range across all genres, marrying literary excellence with storytelling savvy.
Contributors include Stephen King, Joyce Carol Oates, Robert Olen Butler, Michael Connelly, Megan Abbott, Craig Ferguson, Nicholas Christopher, Jill D. Block, Joe R. Lansdale, Justin Scott, Kristine Kathryn Rusch, Warren Moore, Jonathan Santlofer, Jeffery Deaver, Lee Child and Lawrence Block himself.
Each story is illustrated with a reproduction of the painting that inspired it.
Or maybe this next one is more to your taste. It’s said that British abstract artist Gerald Wilde served as a model for Carey’s literary creation….
The Horse’s Mouth by Joyce Cary
cover © Lume Books
Gulley Jimson is the charming, impoverished painter who cares little about the conventional values of his day. His unfailing belief that he must live and paint according to his intuition without regard for the cost to himself or to others, makes him a man of great, if sometimes flawed, vision.
But with an admirable drive for creation comes an astonishing hunger for destruction. Is he a great artist? A has-been? Or an exhausted, drunken ne'er-do-well?
As Gulley Jimson criss-crosses London in search of money and inspiration, the world as seen through his eyes appears with a wonderful lustre and a terrible beauty.
Blowing our own trumpet for a moment, the next selection features artists from our own collection, Laura Knight and Evelyn Dunbar (on whom the character of Vivienne is based).
Warpaint by Alicia Foster
cover © Penguin books Ltd
Four women create propaganda in WWII's darkest hour in this gripping fact-based debut novel.
Buckinghamshire, 1942: in a gothic villa deep in woods near Bletchley Park, artist Vivienne Thayer paints 'Black' propaganda to demoralise the enemy. Despite government restrictions, she enjoys her work - and finds time for a lover as well as her indulgent husband - but where do acts of subterfuge end?
Meanwhile, in London, three women painters - Laura Knight, Faith Farr and Cecily Browne - record wartime life. Instructed by the men in power, even Churchill himself, they must conjure up the bulldog spirit.
But as the war's course turns and the lives of these artists collide, each must ask herself what truths and what lies they are prepared to tell, even to those closest to them.
And finally, if graphic novels are more your thing, here’s a story by the man who literally wrote the book on sequential art and storytelling.
The Sculptor by Scott McCloud
cover © SelfMadeHero Publishing
David Smith is giving his life for his art - literally.
Thanks to a deal with Death, the young sculptor gets his childhood wish: to sculpt anything he can imagine with his bare hands.
But now that he only has 200 days to live, deciding what to create is harder than he thought, and discovering the love of his life at the eleventh hour isn't making it any easier. This is a story of desire taken to the edge of reason and beyond; of the frantic, clumsy dance steps of young love; and a gorgeous, street-level portrait of the world's greatest city.
It's about the small, warm, human moments of everyday life... and the great surging forces that lie just under the surface.
Scott McCloud wrote the book on how comics work; now he vaults into breathtaking, funny, and unforgettable fiction.
If you read any of these, or have already read them, then share your thoughts in the comments below. Or, if you have any further art-related novel recommendations of your own, let us know.
With thanks to Adam, Janet and Ronan for their suggestions.