A beautiful countenance or a chiselled body, steeled with a few drops of tinges oozing out from the strokes of a brush on the table of an aching heart, has inspired many authors to render their thoughts into words. The novels – though do not often occupy the theme of those paintings – they explore philosophy, history, sociology, and the condition of man through those brush strokes. Now that the rainy season is slowly bidding goodbye, you can spend some time in a park or on the banks of the Upper Lake with a few books from thrillers to romance.
You may find the ideas of many of them associated with paintings. One such work is Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray. A Canadian artist, Frances Richards drew a portrait of Wilde in 1887 in her studio in London.
Wilde described the painting as an inspiration behind the novel. Wilde said, “I gave a sitting to a Canadian artist who was staying with some friends of hers and mine in South Kensington. When the sitting was over, and I had looked at the portrait, I said in jest, ‘what a tragic thing it is.
This portrait will never grow older, I shall. If it was only the other way! The moment I had said this it occurred to me what a capital plot the idea would make. The result is Dorian Gray.
” Similarly, according to some critics, a novel Rebecca (1938) by Daphne du Maurier resulted from a painting of French artist Eugene Delacroix (1798-1863). The novels of Sir Walter Scot inspired Delacroix so long as he was alive. The pain.