Usually my blog posts begin as reactions to images, but picturing worlds in fiction depends solely on words. In The Overstory, Richard Powers deploys his gifts and well-honed skills to carry us to the top of the trees, weave us through American society, and plunge us into Read More
As we near Labor Day, Anders Zorn’s bathers are a reminder of summer’s pleasures that will soon be coming to an end. I loved this picture when I was writing about my young artists in Pont Aven. Nudes were basic to academic training Read More
Louise Catherine Breslau was a star student at the Académie Julian at the time during which Where the Light Falls is set. She does not play a role in the novel, but it was like coming across an old friend Read More
In the latter 19th C, polite society considered it a sign of shocking Bohemianism for women to smoke. Now we might not worry about the sitter’s morals, only her health. When Amélie Beaury-Saurel painted this picture, however, she probably meant it as Read More
