The Stories Art Inspires

Recently I've read several books that are fictional accounts around the creation of famous works of art. I absolutely love this concept of taking one single image and painting lives and stories around what could have been. From some basic research it appears that the Tracy Chevalier books were mostly works of fiction - due to the lack of facts around the paintings themselves but the Renoir book had an insane amount of research behind it and I guess because of the late 19th century time period - had more accessible information.

Girl with a Pearl Earring by Tracy Chevalier
I thought this book was just okay - pretty predictable and I found the main character slightly annoying. She definitely had backbone and sense of self but other than this quivering to be an artist, she had no passion or appreciation for what was around her.

I understand historically her reluctance to be the master painter's model but I felt like in the book it built up to it too long and she just seemed whiny and wishy-washy.

I've never seen the movie but can totally see both Scarlett Johansen and Colin Firth in the two main roles.

The Lady and the Unicorn by Tracy Chevalier
I had never heard of this piece of work until Carrie and Elizabeth told me about it from their France trip. They were actually able to go and see the real tapestries. I downloaded a few to see them but the resolution is off and they are hard to actually see well - though the descriptions from the book are so vivid, that I painted a fairly good mental image.

I thought this book was much more interesting than Chevalier's book above. Each chapter had a different character perspective and there were several different story lines to follow, though all interconnected through one slightly sleazy artist. Like most books on the period, it had strong commentary about the antiquated place of women within society. I get why its important to discuss but at the same time, it sometimes can become like a broken record - maybe I should just take a break from period books...


Luncheon of the Boating Party by Susan Vreeland
I absolutely LOVED this book! It was told mostly from Auguste Renoir's perspective, but had a few insights from other characters, and told the story Renoir's "moment in time" painting that combines several artistic techniques. According to the book he was warring with his Impressionist leanings and critiques from social commentators on how to incorporate more life into his art.

The whole time he was painting, I fell in love with the characters - who were all his actual friends- they were celebrating "la vie moderne" and celebrating life and love as actively as humans can. Just looking at the painting I was jealous, I want to be at that party! I want to sit out on a balcony after some amazing food and wine, relaxing and chatting with my friends! Maybe that is the success of the painting - the overwhelming desire to be apart of it.

It's fun to blow up the picture to be huge and really look at it closely - the level of detail was amazing and just trying to imagine coordinating 12 people for sittings is insane.

According to Wikipedia - the people in the painting are:

• The seamstress Aline Charigot, holding a dog, sits near the bottom left of the composition. Renoir would later marry her.

• Charles Ephrussi—wealthy amateur art historian, collector, and editor of the Gazette des Beaux-Arts—appears wearing a top hat in the background. The younger man to whom Ephrussi appears to be speaking, more casually attired in a brown coat and cap, may be Jules Laforgue, his personal secretary and also a poet and critic.

• Actress Ellen Andrée drinks from a glass in the center of the composition. Seated across from her is Baron Raoul Barbier.

• Placed within but peripheral to the party are the proprietor's daughter Louise-Alphonsine Fournaise and her brother, Alphonse Fournaise, Jr., both sporting traditional straw boaters and appearing to the left side of the image. Alphonsine is the smiling woman leaning on the railing; Alphonse, who was responsible for the boat rental, is the leftmost figure.

• Also wearing boaters are figures appearing to be Renoir's close friends Eugène Pierre Lestringez and Paul Lhote, himself an artist. Renoir depicts them flirting with the actress Jeanne Samary in the upper righthand corner of the painting.

• In the right foreground, Gustave Caillebotte wears a white boater's shirt and flat-topped straw boater's hat as he sits backwards in his chair next to actress Angèle Legault and journalist Adrien Maggiolo. An art patron, painter, and important figure in the impressionist circle, Caillebotte was also an avid boatman and drew on that subject for several works.