10 Works of Art Inspired by Literature

Art has always drawn inspiration from experience, be it the physical world perceived by the senses or more abstract aspects, such as emotions. For this reason, since literature influences human perceptions, it has often been used as inspiration for works of art. In portraying well-known poems, plays, and novels, artists have made the understanding of their craft accessible to their audience, simultaneously enhancing their appreciation for literature and art. This article explores the ways that artists draw inspiration from the written word, making the verbal visual with their art.

The story of Icarus is well-known and originates from classical mythology. The youth is kept by King Minos on the island of Crete with his father, the inventor Daedalus. Anxious to return to his homeland, Daedalus fashions two pairs of wings, one for Icarus and one for himself. He cautions Icarus not to fly too close to the sun, but the young man fails to heed his father’s warning, flying higher and higher. The sun melts the wax that holds his wings together and he plunges into the sea to his death.

Like many before and after him, this story captured the imagination of Pieter Bruegel the Elder. Contrary to what might be expected, he does not depict Icarus falling or in flight. The focus of his painting is a coastal landscape and its occupants, which include a farmer plowing a field, a pig herd, and a fisherman. Almost imperceptible beside a ship with its billowing sails are the legs of Icarus, who has plummeted into the water. This implies the fleetingness of Icarus’ flight, which is forgotten almost as it ends. The only figure in the painting who appears to notice something out of the ordinary is the pig herd, who is looking at the sky. It is possible that he is glancing up to where Icarus was moments ago or that he has spotted Daedalus in flight.

2. The Banquet Scene in Shakespeare’s Macbeth by Daniel Maclise

Maclise’s painting of the play’s renowned Banquet Scene is as dark and dreary as the atmosphere of much of the play. In the murky, crowded banquet hall, Macbeth and Lady Macbeth are illuminated by the light of the torches. Macbeth, writhing in terror, drops his goblet and recoils from his chair, where the ghost of Banquo is seated. Lady Macbeth, on the other hand, is raising her arm as if to calm the commotion. The rest of the guests, seemingly oblivious to the chair’s occupant, observe the spectacle in front of them with interest. They are facing the pair, likely taking in Macbeth’s terrified utterances and his wife’s attempt to explain his strange behavior simultaneously.

Another Shakespeare tragedy that involves the death of innocent characters is Hamlet. The prince of Denmark, Hamlet, encounters his father’s ghost, who informs him that he was poisoned by his uncle, Claudius. Considering it his duty to avenge his father, Hamlet sets out to ascertain whether his uncle is guilty. During this process, he acts increasingly erratically and subjects Ophelia, the girl he loves, to a scathing denouncement of marriage and women. To add insult to injury, once resolved to kill his uncle, he mistakes Ophelia’s father, Polonius, for Claudius and stabs him to death. In the aftermath, Ophelia goes mad and eventually drowns herself.

Literature, as a common source of inspiration for Pre-Raphaelite art, works its way into several of Sir John Everett Millias’s works. One of the most iconic visual representations of literature is his painting of Ophelia. He portrays the tragic heroine at the moment of her death. Yet, even in death, she possesses an air of grace and serenity, her hands gently upturned as if she has accepted her end. Her hair flows elegantly around her, mimicking the flux of the stream. She is pale and statuesque, which makes her stand out from the greenery around her. Yet, she appears to be at rest and one with her watery grave. Accordingly, she is adorned with dainty flowers that gently echo the shrub and the river bank on either side of her.

4. Clytemnestra by John Collier

In classical mythology, a figure often interpreted as a villain for the murder of her husband Menelaus is Clytemnestra. Upon the king’s return from the Trojan War, she and her lover assassinated him. However, a detail that is often forgotten is the fact that Menelaus sacrificed their daughter, Iphigenia, to win the favor of the gods before the armies set sail. Ultimately, Clytemnestra is a more nuanced character than authors like Euripides gave her credit for. Perhaps she was a bereaved mother or even a feminist bent on avenging the daughter who fell victim in the wake of her father’s ambition. Nonetheless, she serves as a dissenting voice in the male-centered intrigues of classical myth.

In John Collier’s portrayal of Clytemnestra, he positions her as the focal point against the dark backdrop of an open doorway. She stands upright, calm, and self-possessed in the aftermath of the murder. One of her arms is raised to part the curtain, and the other rests on a bloody axe. The details of this painting are particularly striking for this reason. It depicts the aftermath of a violent act that turns the traditional concept of hierarchy and order on its head in a surprisingly collected way. Clytemnestra’s garments are neatly draped without even a trace of blood, and there are no lines on her face. Her chin slightly raised, she looks down like a predator that may, at any moment, meet the gaze of its prey before pouncing.

Alfred Lord Tennyson’s lyrical ballad, “The Lady of Shalott” describes the unfortunate end of a woman bound by a mysterious curse. In its wake, she fears her fate should she look directly at Camelot, the court of King Arthur. She thus isolates herself on the Island of Shalott, observing the outside world through the reflection of a magic mirror. This all changes on the day she sees Lancelot riding towards Camelot. Taken in by his appealing presence, she runs to the window before considering the consequences. As the mirror shatters, she realizes that her fate is sealed. With the last of her strength, she carves her name into a boat. By the time the vessel bears her into Camelot, she is dead.

John William Waterhouse’s painting depicts the lady who is the ballad’s subject moments before her death. She sits upright in the boat, tense yet slightly stooped forward as if to indicate her fragility. Her facial expression is mournful but resigned as if she knows that fighting against her fate is futile. One of her hands, which may have been clenched if she had more strength, is neatly folded in her lap. The other clasps a chain that may have tethered the boat to the pier. Overall, the painting delicately juxtaposes vitality and mortality, hinting at the inevitable death we know the ballad ends with while still showing glimmers of life. This is most vividly captured by the candles at the bow of the boat, two of which have already gone out. The third, closest to the lady, burns at an angle, caught in the wind that may extinguish it at any moment.

In the fairy tale The Goose Girl, a princess is betrothed to a prince in a distant land. To protect her on her travels, her mother gives her a cloth with three drops of her own blood. During the journey, the princess asks her chambermaid to fetch her a drink of water, but the girl instructs her to fetch her own. When this happens a second time, the princess unknowingly loses the cloth. The chambermaid notices this and forces the princess to switch roles with her. When they meet the prince, it is the chambermaid who marries him, while the true princess is forced to become a goose girl. After great suffering, the deception is exposed, and justice is served.

A remarkable aspect of Amrita Sher-Gil’s watercolor based on the fairy tale is that she was only ten years old when she painted it. She portrays the princess fetching water, likely at the moment when she loses her mother’s cloth. She is the picture of elegance and composure, standing upright next to the stream. At a glance, the atmosphere of the painting is serene, with lush green shrubbery and colorful flowers in the background. The horses are at ease, and one even grazes. However, the chambermaid sitting haughtily on her mount in the vicinity of the greenery while the princess stands on the dry ground near the water implies that not all is as it seems. The maid holds her horse’s reins as if to indicate that she has the upper hand in the situation. She is merely waiting for the right moment to take control of her unsuspecting mistress.

Don Quixote, the novel by Miguel de Cervantes, recounts the experiences of a man enamored with ideals of chivalry and heroism. In a bid to become a knight, he dubs himself Don Quixote and chooses a local peasant girl as his love interest. Later, he also employs a man by the name of Sancho Panza as his squire. With Quixote mounted on his old mare and Panza on a donkey, they set out on various perceived quests in honor of the lady. The first of these involves a field of windmills, which Quixote considers to be giants. He unsuccessfully tries to fight them, only to concede that they must have been transformed into windmills by a wizard.

Pablo Picasso’s sketch representing Don Quixote is striking in its simplicity. In fact, at first glance, the drawing appears childlike. However, upon closer examination, Picasso’s use of scale and shading adds perspective to the artwork. Through a series of black strokes, he represents Quixote, the taller of the figures, on his horse alongside a chubby Panza on his long-eared donkey. The illusion of sunlight is created by the use of fewer strokes for illuminated areas and more strokes for shaded sections.

In the background, the field of windmills is represented by lines that gradually become smaller and more lopsided to represent distance. Given that the novel is often described as a parody, Picasso’s choice of a more abstract style seems deliberate. As the protagonist oversimplifies chivalry, making a mockery of it with his foolish blunders, this artwork distorts a key moment in the novel, showing Quixote as the failed hero he is.

Edgar Allan Poe’s short story, “The Domain of Arnheim” describes a man by the name of Ellison’s quest for perfection and ideal beauty. His belief is that happiness can be attained through adherence to four basic principles, one of which is a lifelong pursuit. When he inherits a vast fortune from a distant relative, he thus decides to devote his wealth to creating a breathtaking landscape garden that will embody a sense of the poetic. For several years, he searches for a perfect location. Finally, he chooses a mountainous realm where natural beauty and the ethereal can be combined with his creative interventions. He calls it Arnheim, which is the German word for “home of the eagle.”

The impressions of grandeur and the sublime that readers of Poe’s short story are left with certainly captured the imagination of René Magritte. He painted nine versions of the landscape, each with similar mountains in the background. His final oil on canvas depicts a clear sky with a waxing crescent moon overlooking snow-capped peaks that resemble Gothic towers. An aspect of the mountain range that goes unnoticed at first glance is the eagle’s head carved into one of the peaks. In the foreground, a nest of eggs rests on the stone railing of a balcony, another juxtaposition of the natural and the artificial. A calm atmosphere permeates from these surreal elements subtly merged with the landscape and creates a sense of cultivation Poe’s Ellison would have lauded.

9. A Mad Tea Party by Salvador Dalí

Few novels have captured the imagination of adults and children alike as widely as Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventure in Wonderland. The young heroine, Alice, follows a white rabbit down a hole into a magical world where flowers speak, food and drink alter one’s size, cats grin, and caterpillars spark existential exploration. One of her most infamous encounters in Wonderland is when she meets the Mad Hatter. He is at a garden tea party with the March Hare and a Dormouse. Alice is offered wine, although there is only tea, and is drawn into their incoherent conversations, including speculation about why a raven is like a writing desk. Eventually, she leaves in disgust when her contributions are not valued.

A version of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland illustrated by Salvador Dalí was published in 1969. He created an illustration for each chapter of the book, including A Mad Tea Party for chapter seven. Dalí’s surrealist style effortlessly merges with the nonsensical nature of Alice’s conversations with the Mad Hatter and the March Hare in the chapter. In particular, the lopsided clock in the center suggests the Hatter’s discussion of time, its melting appearance physically embodying his claim that he has “murdered” the concept.

Further, it doubles as a table on which a teapot and three teacups rest. Also, in the middle of the painting, penetrating the clock as if sprouting from it, is a tree with butterflies circling its branches. It is possible that the butterflies allude to the caterpillar who questions Alice about her identity in Chapter Five. In a sense, the conversations Alice engages in while she is in Wonderland, frustrating as they may be, allow her to grow and transform. Fittingly, the Alice figure in the painting, a girl swinging a jumping rope above her head, is situated underneath the tree and the clock.

Lewis Carrol’s sequel to Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland titled Through the Looking Glass describes more of Alice’s surreal adventures. She climbs through the mirror above the fireplace and enters a room where she can see miniature figures on a chessboard. Upon exploring outside, she discovers that the surroundings are also designed to resemble a chessboard. She encounters the Red Queen, who allows her to join the game as a pawn. Although she desperately wants to become a queen, she is told that she must reach the eighth square before this can happen. After many adventures, a white knight guides Alice there. Her delight at becoming a queen is short-lived, however, since she struggles to understand the strange conventions of the land where she finds herself.

Peter Blake created a collection of eight silkscreen on paper works based on Through the Looking Glass. In one of these, titled “Well, this is grand!” said Alice, he depicts Alice when she becomes a queen. Outside, with hills and trees on the horizon, she is situated among a variety of flowers. She is the focal point of the portrait, visible at a close angle from the shoulders up. Stately in a light dress rimmed by red ribbons, her facial expression is serious to imply that she is determined to take on the role. In contrast, her youthfulness is emphasized by her hair hanging loosely about her shoulders and the freckles that dapple her nose and cheeks. Her naivety is also apparent from the crown that rests on her head, which appears to be too large to fit her comfortably.

Throughout history, human insights have been conveyed through different modes of expression. In drawing from the written word, many artists have brought texts to life visually, simultaneously creating an appreciation for art and literature. Their literary art captures the complexity of the human experience.