Stories of Art and Artists

Stories of Art and Artists gathers 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—make Stories of Art and Artists an 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" (from My Name Is Red)