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I'm interested in
collecting references to art in literature -- particularly references
to specific classical, romantic, or Pre-Raphaelite paintings of the
19th and early 20th centuries, or to the artists or genre(s) in
general. If you'd like to contribute, please visit our message
boards
to post your findings, or send an email if you prefer.
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In praise of Beauty,
Tess of Midnight Muse
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New
reference added 11-27-2001 (scroll down)
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The
Secret Garden
published
1909 (?)
by
Frances Hodgson Burnett
In
Chapter XX, Colin is speaking about the arrival of Spring: |
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"That
morning when you ran in and said, 'It's come! It's come!' you made
me feel quite queer. It sounded as if things were coming with a great
procession and big bursts and wafts of music. I've a picture like it
in one of my books -- crowds of lovely people and children with
garlands and branches with blossoms on them, everyone laughing and
dancing and crowding and playing on pipes. That was why I said,
'Perhaps we shall hear golden trumpets,' and told you to throw open
the window." |
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Colin's
description sounds like Spring (1894)
painted
by Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema.
(click on
thumbnail for larger image) |
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To
Kill a Mockingbird
by
Harper Lee
published
1960
In Chapter 12, Jem
and Scout Finch are visiting their nurse Calpurnia's church, First
Purchase African M.E. Church. The action takes place in Alabama in
the 1930s. |
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"First
Purchase was unceiled and unpainted within. Along its walls
unlighted kerosene lamps hung on brass brackets; pine benches served
as pews. Behind the rough oak pulpit a faded pink silk banner
proclaimed God Is Love, the church's only decoration except a
rotogravure print of Hunt's The Light of the World." |
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The
Light of the World (1853)
William
Holman Hunt
(click on
thumbnail for larger image) |
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Women
In Love
by
D. H. Lawrence
published
c. 1920 (?)
From
Chapter 1, "Sisters:" |
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"[Hermione's]
long pale face, that she carried lifted up, somewhat in the Rossetti
fashion, seemed almost drugged...." |
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Beata
Beatrix
(c.
1870)
Dante
Gabriel Rossetti
The
Daydream (1880)
Dante
Gabriel Rossetti
(click on
thumbnails for larger image) |
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Orpheus
Descending
by
Tennessee Williams
copyright
1955, 1958
Act
II Scene 3. The speaker is the young man Val. |
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"I
like that picture in there. That's a famous picture, that 'September
Morn' picture you got on the wall in there. Ha ha! I might have
trouble sleeping in a room with that picture. I might keep turning
the light on to take another look at it! The way she's cold in that
water and sort of crouched over in it, holding her body like that,
that -- might -- ha ha! -- sort of keep me awake. . . ." |
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September
Morn (1912)
Paul-Emile
Chabas
(click on
thumbnail for larger image)
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"Autre
Temps..."
by
Edith Wharton
(included
in Roman Fever & Other Stories)
Part
III. Mrs. Lidcote listens to a relative speaking cheerfully of her
newly-divorced daughter and the improvements in her life: |
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"You
won't know Leila. She's had her pearls reset. Sargent's to paint her." |
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Mrs.
Ralph Curtis (1898)
John
Singer Sargent
(click on
thumbnail for larger image)
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