Three Interesting Art Novels

Posted by Meg Nola Aug 9, 2008

The mysterious death of Canadian artist Tom Thomson (1877-1917) has intrigued people for years--with much speculation as to what really happened in July 1917 on Canoe Lake. The basic facts are that Thomson, a very talented painter nearing his fortieth birthday, was found presumably drowned in Algonquin Park, Ontario’s Canoe Lake. There was never an official autopsy, and while the coroner’s verdict was accidental drowning, certain details surrounding Thomson’s death might suggest otherwise. Thomson’s untimely passing has inspired several books and documentaries, including Neil J. Lehto’s biographical novel Algonquin Elegy: Tom Thomson’s Last Spring, described by Canadian columnist Roy MacGregor as “both a labor of love and a labor of gargantuan effort to come to some understanding, nine decades on, of exactly what happened that summer of 1917.” MacGregor, incidentally, has written his own novel based on Thomson’s death entitled Canoe Lake.

Another Canadian artist and contemporary of Tom Thomson was Emily Carr (1871-1945), who like Thomson captured visions of the Canadian landscape in vividly unique paintings. Carr’s fascinating life-journey is explored in Susan Vreeland’s The Forest Lover, which follows Emily through Canada to Europe back to British Columbia again. Vreeland, well-known for her other art-related novels Girl in Hyacinth Blue and Luncheon of the Boating Party, details her inspiration in the author’s afterword: “As [Emily] wanted to paint the spirit of a thing, so have I wanted to offer the spirit of her courageous and extraordinary life….”

I haven’t read Algonquin Elegy or Canoe Lake yet but they’re on my summer book list, and I have read and enjoyed The Forest Lover. Because if a picture is indeed worth a thousand words, sometimes it’s equally intriguing to read the thousands of words that create stories beyond those pictures, paintings--and artists--as well.