Stories of Art and Artists [Hardcover]

Stories of Art and Artistsgathers two centuries of classic stories from around the world. From Nathaniel Hawthorne’s “The Artist of the Beautiful” and Albert Camus’s “The Artist at Work” to Bernard Malamud’s “Rembrandt’s Hat” and Aimee Bender’s “The Color Master,” the tales collected here range from haunting fables about the power of art to vivid portraits of those who create.

Writers have long been fascinated by the idea of artistic genius, the relationship between portraits and their subjects, the inspirational role of muses, and the effects on artists of ambition, failure, and success. Art forms featured in these pages include sculpture, pottery, architecture, miniatures, landscapes, portraits, and abstract painting, illumined in brilliant stories by such great writers as Honoré de Balzac, Hermann Hesse, Franz Kafka, Marguerite Yourcenar, John Berger, William Boyd, Doris Lessing, Valerie Martin, Julian Barnes, Orhan Pamuk, and A. S. Byatt.  Their dazzling literary evocations of the visual arts—using one art form to reflect on another—makeStories of Art and Artistsan irresistible gift for lovers of art of all kinds.Marguerite Yourcenar, How Wang-Fo Was Saved
Edgar Allan Poe, The Oval Portrait
Guy de Maupassant, A Portrait
Penelope Fitzgerald, The Red-Haired Girl
Henry James, The Real Thing
Julian Barnes The Limner
William Boyd, Varengeville
John Berger, A Brush
Doris Lessing, Two Potters
A. S. Byatt, A Lamia in the Cevennes
Bernard Malamud, Rembrandt's Hat
Albert Camus, Jonas, or The Artist at Work
Hermann Hesse, The Painter
Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Artist of the Beautiful
Franz Kafka, A Hunger Artist
Honore de Balzac, The Unknown Masterpiece
Valerie Martin, His Blue Period
Rebecca Lee, Fialta
Aimee Bender, The Color Master
Orhan Pamuk, I am Red (fl“W