Five biographical novels explore the souls of artists from Rodin to Hilma af Klint

Connaissance des Arts presents a summer reading list of five biographical novels that delve into the minds of iconic artists. Clélia Renucci's "Le Chef-d'œuvre maudit" recounts the troubled history of Rodin's Balzac statue, commissioned in 1891 but not installed until 1939 on Boulevard Raspail. Eugénie Bey's "Le Tombeau rêvé selon Ferdinand Cheval" uncovers the little-known story of the tomb the postman Cheval carved for himself. Véronique Le Normand's "Femme oiseau étoile" channels Hilma af Klint in the afterlife, from her studies at the Royal Swedish Academy of Fine Arts to her occult-inspired abstract works, currently on view at the Grand Palais in Paris until late August. Juan Gabriel Vásquez's "Les noms de Feliza" traces Colombian sculptor Feliza Bursztyn from Bogotá to Paris, where she encountered Giacometti, became a favorite student of Zadkine, and studied under César. Luce Perez-Tejedor's debut novel "Saint-Soleil" centers on the Haitian art movement born from voodoo and peasant painting, which André Malraux in 1976 recognized as a force of resistance against dictatorship and art market commodification.