Books for Lovers of Reading and Art

This novel about 19th-century artists Camille Claudel and Auguste Rodin explores their working relationship and explosive love affair. A VMFA Book Club selection during the museum’s past exhibition Rodin: Evolution of a Genius, the novel is set in Belle Époque France and is described by the San Francisco Book Review as “a riveting examination of all-consuming love and unfettered talent.

Set in India in the first half of the 20th century, this novel tells the tale of two Sikh women who are both married to the same man. Satya has been a loyal companion to her husband, so it is difficult when he takes the younger Roop as a second wife. As the women navigate their relationship, their husband navigates the partitioning that led to the creation of Pakistan and India. With so much political upheaval, where will the Sikh community fit in?

This fascinating biography presents the story of Mary Delany, an artist who did not begin her artistic career until the age of 72. Following the death of her second husband, Mary delved into her love of botany to create a new art form: mixed-media collages of flowers now referred to as the Flora Delanica. Author Molly Peacock draws parallels with her own life even as she transports the reader to upper class life in 18th-century England.

Gordon Parks—noted African American photographer, film director, writer, and musician—is best known for his civil rights–era photojournalism. The Learning Tree is his semi-autobiographical novel set in a small rural town in Kansas in the 1920s. This book club selection coincided with the 2016 VMFA exhibition Gordon Parks: Back to Fort Scott.

Edward Curtis, a popular early 20th-century photographer, was best known for his evocative portraits of Native Americans. Financed by J.P. Morgan, Curtis and his staff spent more than 30 years researching, photographing, and writing about Native Americans and their way of life, which was rapidly disappearing. One of his iconic orotones (glass-plate photographs) was acquired by VMFA.

Ninth Street Women is the impassioned, wild, sometimes-tragic, always-exhilarating chronicle of five women who dared to enter the male-dominated world of 20th-century abstract painting—not as muses but as artists. From their cold-water lofts, where they worked, drank, fought, and loved, these pioneers burst open the door to the art world for themselves and countless others to come. Winner of the 2019 Art in Literature: The Mary Lynn Kotz Award

In the book’s preface, Carolyn Kreiter-Foronda writes: “The first time I saw the paintings of world-renowned artists Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo . . . I knew a book of poems was in the making.” Through poetry of inspired imagery and impressive detail, she explores the beauty of each artist’s work as well as their personal struggles and the couple’s complicated marriage. Winner of the 2014 Art in Literature: The Mary Lynn Kotz Award

Tracing the development of Colonial American portraiture, Hugh Howard introduces us to the “founding fathers of American painting”—Charles Willson Peale, John Trumbull, Benjamin West, and Gilbert Stuart. These painters’ interactions with their most famous sitter, George Washington, allow the reader to develop a deeper understanding of what made early American painting unique and how these artists viewed their new country.