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The Pen and the Brush: How Passion for Art Shaped Nineteenth-Century French Novels

by Anka Muhlstein
Other. Jan. 2017. 240p. tr. from French by Adriana Hunter. illus. notes. ISBN 9781590518052. $18.95; ebk. ISBN 9781590518069. LIT
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It's no secret that some of the prominent 19th-century French writers were fanatical about art and artists. Mulhstein (Balzac's Omelette) probes the connection between author and artist by focusing on five writers: Honoré de Balzac, Émile Zola, Joris-Karl Huysmans, Guy de Maupassant, and Marcel Proust, to consider the roles of painters and paintings in each of their stories. Some of the authors used famous works to create imagery in their writing; others depicted the lives of fictional artists and how they interacted with the world. Most of the book focuses on Balzac, Zola, and Proust, touching on Huysmans and Maupassant briefly. This enables readers to get a comprehensive look at the relationship between writer and painter. These men not only penned novels about artists, they surrounded themselves with them.
VERDICT Readers interested in the history of art and literature will enjoy this crossover. Examining how these authors interpreted the art world provides new insight into 19th-century French culture.
Reviewed by Rebecca Kluberdanz, New York P.L. , Nov 15, 2016
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