The best books on why art matters (in our lives)

To the Lighthouse is Virginia Woolf’s most autobiographical novel.

Ostensibly set in Scotland, Woolf is describing her own childhood holidays in Talland House, St Ives Cornwall which gave her intense happiness. The story is of the Ramsay family and their friends (who stand in for Woolf’s family) on vacation.

Lily Briscoe, an artist is painting Mrs Ramsay’s portrait which Lily completes after Mrs Ramsay’s sudden death; and Lily has her ‘vision’. Beautifully evocative of Cornish landscape, Woolf captures the inner feelings of characters impressionistically and movingly.

I took Woolf’s Lily Briscoe as my heroine in my novel and depict her emotional journey in becoming a professional artist and solving the mystery of Mrs. Ramsay’s suspicious death. In 2022, after my four-year campaign, I unveiled a plaque to Woolf on Talland House, St Ives. Like Lily, I had my vision.

The only novel by Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray, was first published in 1890 but its gothic horror has never lost appeal.

Dorian is an extraordinarily beautiful young man being painted by artist Basil Hallward. The completed painting is hung in an attic and gradually ages as Dorian retains his youth, until the painting is destroyed. Basil’s infatuation with Dorian gives the novel a homoerotic frisson and places the novel in turn-of-the-century decadent arts.

All of us worry about growing old, losing our youthful appearance and the novel plays on these fears. The novel also teaches us not to engage in any Faustian pact-like Dorian!

Carel Fabritius’s seventeenth-century Dutch painting The Goldfinch gives the novel its title and plot.

Starting with a powerful scene of an art gallery bombing which kills thirteen-year-old Theo Decker’s mother and he steals the painting, the novel depicts Theo’s journey through the US criminal underworld. With amazing characters and thrilling suspense, The Goldfinch is a novel about loss, love, and obsession.

I too am obsessed by a Dutch painting, in my case Vermeer’s View of Delft. My mother, who also died when I was thirteen like Theo, had a cheap print of the painting which now hangs in my dining room reminding me of her.

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.

Lucrezia, Duchess of Ferrara married aged sixteen to Duke Alfonso, is certain that he intends to kill her. Before Alfonso can carry out his sinister wish, he commands painters to paint a marriage portrait of Lucrezia.

One painter, a mute, as well as Lucrezia’s maid, guess Lucrezia’s danger. Will their knowledge save their mistress?

The Marriage Portrait is a gripping read and a wonderful portrait in itself of the world of 1561 and Italian art. Having written two historical novels about artists, I am in awe of O’Farrell’s ability to recreate the atmosphere and imagery of the past.