From Dorian Gray’s hidden portrait to Donna Tartt’s stolen Goldfinch, novelist Sophia Tobin chooses her favourite books with paintings at their heart
A work of art can fire my imagination like nothing else. If I’m feeling stuck during the writing process, I look at a painting from the period I’m writing about and it’s usually enough to help me: a way into another place and time.
Looking at paintings was a central part of the research for my second book, The Widow’s Confession, a murder mystery set in a Kent seaside resort in 1851 – and not just because one of the characters is a painter. Ramsgate Sands (Life at the Seaside) by William Powell Frith was an influence during the genesis of the book, with its depiction of Victorian holidaymakers at play. But a range of paintings helped throughout the writing process: the seas and skies of Turner’s work for atmosphere; the detailed crowd scenes by Frith for costume and Victorian spectacle; and the beautiful but empty-eyed pre-Raphaelite stunners for ideals of feminine beauty.
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