Comments on: Susan Vreeland: Fiction and Art

By: Mary Latela

Mary Latela — Mon, 02 Mar 2015 23:48:41 +0000

Dear Susan,
You have inspired me! Truly, the knit-together bond between art and writing is so clear that I wonder why I haven’t seen it sooner? When I go to our local Art Gallery, I sit before the same four of five pictures because they touch my heart. Must read Girl in Hyacinth Blue. Thanks so much. Mary Latela

By: Anita Belli

Anita Belli — Fri, 26 Sep 2014 19:20:05 +0000

Thanks for a thought provoking post. This really chimes with me! My novel, The Art Forger’s Daughter is a celebration of art and its impact on the world in times of crisis. I love the stories paintings can tell and the mystery of their interpretation.

By: wendy robertson

wendy robertson — Wed, 20 Aug 2014 10:14:16 +0000

Thank you Diana for your incisive piece which resonated so much with me. I too remember reading The Agony and the Ecstasy and Lust For Life and rushing to look again at the work of these artists.
The Chevalier novel was interesting in that it focused on a particular painting and, through the gift of fiction, incorporated the inner life of the model.
Now I will rush to read your novels…
It occurs to me that the way we look at a particular painting is to try to tell ourselves its story,to give the painting a narrative form which we can access through our literary imaginations.
I loved writing my novel Gabriel Merchant, now in its second edition, inspired by the paintings of two gifted working class miners who were subtle artists. w.

By: Elinor Nash

Elinor Nash — Mon, 11 Aug 2014 15:46:16 +0000

I’m an artist as well as a writer so I’m drawn to books like yours and Tracy Chevalier’s. Patrick Gale’s Notes on an Exhibition was terrific too. In my own writing, I find I naturally use art as visual references and have written characters who are artists or who have synaesthesia or who see the world pictorially. Yet to write about a specific artist or painting but the idea is intriguing.
Great blog, thanks!

By: Donna Trump

Donna Trump — Sat, 09 Aug 2014 20:00:28 +0000

Great essay about a topic very near to my heart. Thank you, Susan Vreeland.

By: Deborah Batterman

Deborah Batterman — Thu, 07 Aug 2014 18:41:33 +0000

A wonderful post re: something near and dear to me, namely, ekphrasis and the myriad ways art can find itself in fiction. Many years ago, I read an exquisite short novel by Eva Figes, ‘Light.’ Interesting to discover that the 2007 reprint contains a subtitle: ‘With Monet at Giverny’ (completely unnecessary, to my thinking). Couldn’t help but recall it when I looked at your list — a treasure trove, indeed — on Goodreads.