Photo by L. Walkins, 2010
A portrait in the Scottish National Gallery in Edinburgh inspired one of the scenes in my novel, Forget-Me-Not. Darcy Seton visits the museum and spends some time studying a painting of her ancestors, George, 5th Lord Seton and His Family by Frans Pourbus the Elder. Art and literature share an intrinsic connection. Many authors have ventured into the artist’s world, writing compelling stories that bring to life the important figures in art history and their masterpieces. Two of my favorite art-inspired novels are Luncheon of the Boating Party by Susan Vreeland and The Lady and the Unicorn by Tracy Chevalier.
Susan Vreeland vividly portrays the lives of Impressionist artist, Auguste Renoir, and his friends who posed for his celebrated painting, Luncheon of the Boating Party. She recreates 19th century Paris and brings Renoir’s amazing work of art to life. I especially enjoyed reading the scenes set on the terrace of the riverside restaurant. As Renoir labored over certain areas of the group portrait, I continually flipped the book closed to compare Vreeland’s descriptions to the cover illustration. I would love to go back to France some day and visit Chatou, the town where Renoir worked on his masterpiece.
Although I haven’t been to Chatou (yet), I have seen Renoir’s beautiful painting. Luncheon of the Boating Party is part of the Phillips Collection in Washington D.C. On our last visit to our nation’s capital, my husband and I visited the museum and eagerly made our way to the second floor where the painting hangs. We hurried down a hallway, rounded a corner into the gallery and stopped in amazement in front of Renoir’s brilliant portrait. I felt like I could step through the frame and join the Parisians lounging on the terrace of the restaurant, Maison Fournaise, on a lazy Sunday afternoon.
Reading Vreeland’s novel encouraged me to go see Renoir’s work in D.C., but in opposite circumstances, I was inspired to read The Lady and the Unicorn by Tracy Chevalier after viewing the renowned unicorn tapestries at the Musée National du Moyen Age in Paris. In her compelling historical novel, Chevalier skillfully weaves together the fascinating story of the French family who commissioned the tapestries and the Belgian weavers who created them. I enjoyed reading her descriptions of the medieval setting and getting to know Chevalier’s well-drawn characters. As an avid cross-stitcher, I was also fascinated by the details of how the iconic tapestries were created. The six beautiful wool and silk tapestries created in Flanders nearly 700 years ago, are now housed behind glass in a dimly lit gallery on the lower floor of the Paris museum.
In William Makepeace Thackeray’s Vanity Fair, the Major tells Emmy that “every beauty of art or nature made him thankful as well as happy, and that the pleasure to be had in listening to fine music, as in looking at the stars in the sky, or at a beautiful landscape or picture, was a benefit for which we might thank Heaven as sincerely as for any other worldly blessing.” Both Vreeland and Chevalier have generously shared “the beauty of art” with their countless thankful readers. I am certainly glad to have had the opportunity to see these marvelous works of art and read the novels inspired by them.
Words and Photos by Linda A. LeVasseur 