Portraits of Great Writers in Modern Art
Paintings of Tolstoy, James, Colette, Cocteau and Virginia Woolf
© Meg Nola
Jun 8, 2009
Writers and painters generally share the common goal of capturing scenes or moods in their work, or trying to project unique visions onto paper or canvas. Furthermore, writers often write about artists in fiction, essays or biographies, while artists often portray writers of their own particular acquaintance or those whom they find intriguing enough to paint. Artists are also frequently commissioned to create portraits of writers for posterity, but the best paintings tend to come from a distinct perception or close relationship with the subject.
Leo Tolstoy
Author of such epic works as War and Peace, Anna Karenina and The Death of Ivan Ilyich, Leo Tolstoy (1828-1910) was the subject of a series of paintings by Ukranian-born Ilya Repin. Repin was a talented painter whose sought-after portraits featured major Russian figures of the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
While Repin did produce a formally posed portrait of Tolstoy, he also painted more intimate views of the revered author at work at his desk, as well lying in the grass reading and standing in the woods. Repin’s circa 1890 barefoot depiction of Tolstoy is particularly striking, as it fuses Tolstoy’s literary stature with his innate connection to humanity and the earth.
Henry James
American-born author and critic Henry James (1843-1916) wrote psychologically intricate works like The Golden Bowl and The Portrait of a Lady. James was considered one of the most eminent minds of his time and was painted in his seventieth year by fellow American expatriate and expert portrait artist John Singer Sargent. Sargent used rich yet subdued browns and blacks as a backdrop for James’ strong features, focusing on the writer’s occasionally imposing intelligence and personality. The resulting 1913 work greatly satisfied James, who declared it a "living, breathing likeness" and a "masterpiece."
Colette
Sidonie Gabrielle Colette (1873-1954) was a French author whose stage career, colorful life and love affairs paralleled her sensual yet realistic works. Though Colette would become a grande dame of French literature and the first woman admitted to the Academie Goncourt, an 1896 portrait of her by artist Jacques Humbert offers a younger, almost vulnerable glimpse of the writer.
Humbert’s portrait of Colette shows a winsome 23 year old, sitting with a schoolgirl’s straight posture and a flower in her hair. At this age, Colette was married to her first husband, Henri Gauthier-Villars — often known as Willy. Willy was older than Colette with many literary connections, and he reportedly locked his young bride in a room and forced her to write novels which he then published under his own name. Colette eventually divorced Willy and reclaimed her fame, but her curious relationship with her first husband served as a perverse start to a nonetheless illustrious writing career.
Jean Cocteau
Poet, novelist, artist, filmmaker and playwright Jean Cocteau (1889-1963) was a friend and creative collaborator of Colette — beyond living a notably Bohemian Parisian lifestyle. The slender, solemn-faced Cocteau with his beautiful, long-fingered hands was a naturally appealing subject for artists, and inspired an elegant Impressionistic portrait by Frederico de Madrazo. Cocteau’s elongated air and quirkiness also fused well with Amedeo Modigliani’s style, with a resulting 1916 painting providing a unique view of the multi-talented writer.
Virginia Woolf
While her mother had posed for artists in her youth, Virginia Stephen Woolf (1882-1941) was not fond of having her portrait painted. Novelist, critic and essayist, Woolf penned such influential works as Mrs. Dalloway and To the Lighthouse, along with her 1929 treatise on feminist creativity, A Room of One’s Own. Woolf did agree to sit for her older sister artist Vanessa Bell, however, who produced a 1912 portrait of Virginia shortly before Virginia’s marriage to Leonard Woolf.
Vanessa Bell, like Virginia, belonged to the influential early 20th century Bloomsbury Group aesthetic movement. In a fine example of less is more, Bell’s 1912 painting manages to show the languid tension of Virginia crocheting while seated in a chair. Not all of Woolf‘s features are clearly defined, yet through the surety of Bell’s outline of her sister’s face and use of muted colors, the essence of Virginia is still distinctly conveyed.
Bell also painted a more detailed portrait of Virginia in 1934, a work which had been privately owned for nearly seventy years and only recently rediscovered. Woolf was not enthused to pose for that painting either, afraid that it would end up in a basement somewhere and that no one would want to look at it again. However, with continuing interest in the lives of both Virginia Woolf and Vanessa Bell, the 1934 portrait has been received with enthusiasm and is unlikely to be exiled to any dark basements — or cobwebby attics — in the near future.
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