Books like Frida

I know I’m stretching the scope of my own title here, but this book’s worth it.

Maggie O’Farrell excels at striking harmony between character, place, and historical moment. Starting with her discovery of a painting of Lucrezia de Medici, the little-known member of that great Italian dynasty, O’Farrell paints her own portrait and revives 16th-century Italy. Pushed into marriage at just 16, Lucrezia quickly infers that her husband, Alfonso, Duke of Ferrara, is planning to kill her.

Her swerve-by-swerve struggle to escape his clutches had me gripped to the very last page. But above all, it was Lucrezia’s passion for art that fascinated me. Her love of drawing and collecting was so sensitively described, and I was moved by her resilience when all her equipment was taken from her.

Besides being a compelling read, the book is a powerful reminder of the role art can play in the lives of… show more.

The provocative title and sheer ambition of this project caught my attention.

Hessel leads us through the history of art, but an alternative version which systematically edits out the men. The result is both enlightening and enthralling. Through the pages, I reconnected with some familiar names, and also met some new ones. The book moves chronologically, offering a series of little windows onto individual artists’ lives.

I listened to the audiobook, which brought the added advantage of hearing the author’s own passion for her topic. This is infectious, and it carried me along, making it ‘unputdownable’. Granted, this isn’t a thorough study of an individual artist’s life. But if you’re looking for a biographical smorgasbord and an enthusiastic overview of women’s art history, you couldn’t do better.

Anne Higgonet’s study of this elusive Impressionist remains one of my favourite biographies.

It is superbly researched, yet Higgonet wears her academic credentials lightly. She moves deftly through Berthe Morisot’s life, finding just the right balance between historical context and individual psychology. Chapters are both thematic and chronological, yet they flow effortlessly.

The pace was just what I look for in a biography. It moved along smartly, and I felt myself really getting to know this measured, passionate, and endearingly melancholic painter. Every so often, the author’s own opinions can be glimpsed. But these appear and pass so swiftly and subtly that they take nothing from the narrative denouement.

I found this a riveting retelling of a life story, one which drew me right into the heart of Impressionist Paris and the world of a woman pulled between artistic rebellion and social mores.

Higgie uses a series of potted biographies to tell the story of a group of artists – women – who are largely undervalued by history.

I found her structuring approach inspiring. By grouping clusters of these life stories around themes rather than periods, she encouraged me to think about the psychology of why and how a woman chooses to paint herself.

I loved how each chapter begins with an introduction to a theme – smile, allegory, solitude, nakedness, etc. – before turning to the artists for whom that resonated. There are some fascinating stories here; tales of triumph and heartache, of art being pursued against the odds.

And because it is not chronological, I found I could dip in and out of sections and go back to those I wanted to read again. In short, this is a brilliant, user-friendly book which cannot fail to surprise and educate. 

As a skilled mystery/thriller author, Dick Francis always wrote stories with interesting protagonists fighting uphill against all odds, and this fascinating story is no different.

I personally loved this attention-grabbing plot set in the Scottish highlands about an offbeat young painter who gets drawn into a complex family drama. As the most unlikely character chosen to protect his ancient family heritage, I found the ever-changing story with an unexpected ending a sheer delight to consume rapidly.

In this wondrous book on Caravaggio, the world of Naples unfolds from the inside through an electrifying reading experience. Written with grace, almost every sentence imparts an epiphany. The author challenges us to undertake soul-work, even if one is a secular reader. Reading becomes an act of empathy and passion. In the words of Wallace Stevens, potential readers will become ‘necessary angels’.

Letters to Gwen John is the artist’s mixture of memoir and fictional letters to Gwen John the artist.

Once a partner of the much older artist Lucian Freud, Paul’s life resembles Gwen’s love for the older French sculptor Auguste Rodin. Paul’s fictional letters provide moving insights into Paul’s life, Gwen’s life, and the role of art.

Uncannily Paul’s letters resemble Gwen’s to Rodin in their shared simplicity and devotion to art.

I just wish Paul’s book had been published before I wrote my book because Paul has so many insights into art techniques. 2023 is definitely Gwen’s year with the opening of the major exhibition of Gwen’s work at Pallant House Gallery, UK.

When kids think of artists, male names usually come to mind. That’s why I was delighted to discover Dancing Through Fields of Color, a lyrical story about Helen Frankenthaler, an abstract expressionist of the 1950s who deserves to be better known. Author Elizabeth Brown shows how Frankenthaler’s difficulty fitting in and creating the art she was told to create ultimately led to her discovering her true gifts and a style that would come to be known as “soak-stain painting.” The rich and joyful colors of Aimee Sicuro’s illustrations of Helen dancing through vibrant flowers, will spark young readers’ imaginations, making them thirst for more.

I’m fascinated by historical fiction that sticks to the “facts” of a person’s life but imagines and richly describes that person’s inner world—in this case Georgia O’Keefe’s. The novel focuses on the young painter’s love affair with Alfred Stieglitz, an established photographer and art dealer. Before the art world knows Georgia O’Keefe as a ground-breaking artist in her own right, she is introduced as the female nude in Stieglitz’s photographs. Does her art gain notice in part because of this scandalous introduction, or does it merely eroticize her and her work? And while she learns much from Stieglitz, what does this relationship cost her? This book is masterfully “painted” with O’Keefe-like brush strokes that assemble a tantalizing picture and still leave much to the imagination.

I was hungry for a great piece of comic writing when a friend handed me this book, and it delivered so much more than laughter.

Once I’d tuned in to the language, I ended up shambling through 30s London alongside impecunious painter Gulley Jimson. A humble man, driven by a holy need to make the sort of art which, it turns out, nobody wants, he encounters a world of squalor and beauty, both physical and moral.

I grew to love him and his daily observations on the play of weather and light on the Thames, which form a sort of sketchbook. As Jimson’s physical health declines, he grips beauty wherever he finds it. Theroux, Lessing, and Updike all rated this author.