The Reader's Shelf-With Brush in Hand: Women Painters in Print

Well-written books about artists are doubly rich, marrying the literary with the visual. Women who paint make provocative protagonists—even in today's postfeminist era, women artists continue to fight for recognition and acceptance. Whether or not we make art ourselves, as readers what a privilege it is to share in a painter's process.

In Susan Vreeland's THE FOREST LOVER (Penguin. 2004. ISBN 0-14-303430-8. pap. $14), readers meet Canada's legendary Emily Carr (1871–1945), a woman fiercely ahead of her time. Always the gypsy when her finances allowed it, she traveled throughout British Columbia at the turn of the century, painting trees, totem poles, and other native artifacts. Her passion for painting leaps off the page, and we sense the crush of time Carr felt when white culture encroached upon what was left of her beloved native Canada. The artist tells her own story (including her rebellious girlhood) in GROWING PAINS: THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF EMILY CARR (Douglas & McIntyre. 2005. ISBN 1-55365-083-2. pap. $12.95).

Elaine Risley, the heroine of Margaret Atwood's CAT'S EYE (Anchor: Doubleday. 1998. ISBN 0-385-49102-6. pap. $13.95), is a painter “teetering on the brink of matronhood” whose retrospective show in Toronto becomes the catalyst for a long overdue examination of her childhood. Atwood's descriptions of Elaine's offbeat paintings add depth to the novel, making readers feel they've stepped into a gallery.

THE INCANTATION OF FRIDA K. (Seven Stories. 2003. ISBN 1-58322-469-6. $23.95; pap. 2004. ISBN 1-58322-571-4. pap. $11.95) is a brilliant, feverish monolog of a novel, a deep dip into the soul of the Mexican artist on the brink of death. Kate Braverman's take on Frida Kahlo merges poetry with art and suffering with ecstasy, with haunting results. For further illumination of the artist and her unconventional life, try THE DIARY OF FRIDA KAHLO: AN INTIMATE SELF-PORTRAIT (Abrams. 2005. ISBN 0-8109-5954-2. $24.95), an illustrated journal covering the years 1944–54.

Art historian Sharyn Rohlfsen Udall's CARR, O'KEEFFE, KAHLO: PLACES OF THEIR OWN (Yale Univ. 2000. ISBN 0-300-07958-3. $50; pap. 2001. ISBN 0-300-09186-9. $32.50) deftly demonstrates the many areas of interconnection linking these very different artists: Emily Carr, Georgia O'Keeffe, and Frida Kahlo. In matters of self-mythology, identification with nature, and the need to test the limits of what it meant to be women painters, there was common ground.

Especially illustrative of the inner life of a working artist, Joe Coomer's A POCKETFUL OF NAMES (Graywolf. 2005. ISBN 1-55597-423-6. $24) introduces us to painter Hannah Bryant, the only inhabitant of a small island in Maine she inherited from her great uncle. She fiercely protects her solitude, but when a dog washes ashore one day, Hannah's life is due for a change. Other characters make their way onto the island, and Hannah struggles to balance her strong need to make art with new forays into love and relationships.

In 15th-century Florence, art and painting were forbidden territory for women, as Sarah Dunant reveals in THE BIRTH OF VENUS (Random. 2003. ISBN 1-4000-6073-7. $21.95; pap. 2004. ISBN 0-8129-6897-2. $13.95). Sixteen-year-old Allesandra Cecchi learns to hide the small sketches she loves to make. When a mysterious young man arrives to paint religious scenes on the walls of the family chapel, she secretly sits as a model for him and gives him some of her artwork to critique. Meanwhile, the monk Savonarola gains religious control of the city and fripperies like art are forbidden. Readers will find much suspense and historical color in the serpentine path Allesandra takes toward life as a working artist.

Harriet Scott Chessman's LYDIA CASSATT READING THE MORNING PAPER (Seven Stories. 2001. ISBN 1-58322-272-3. $24; pap. Plume: NAL. 2002. ISBN 0-452-28350-7. $13) treats readers to an unusual point of view, that of an artist's model. Lydia, the older sister of American Impressionist Mary Cassatt, lives with her family in Paris. Although ill with a kidney disorder, Lydia is determined to be a good model for her sister. Each chapter tells the story of a particular portrait, with color plate included. Dreamy, dabbled with light and shadow, this short novel of dedicated sisterhood is a rare treat.

ALL WE KNOW OF LOVE (Broadway. 2000. ISBN 0-7679-0408-7. $22.95; pap. 2001. ISBN 0-7679-0409-5. $12.95) by Katie Schneider introduces 20-year-old Joanna Shepherd, a painter with a strong spiritual imagination. When she experiences a vision of the Virgin Mary, who tells her to go to Italy and paint, Joanna packs her bags. In Florence, her talent is recognized by a wealthy young man who stakes her to free studio space. Weaving between past and present, the novel explores Joanna's forays into romance as well as her growing identity as a painter.