During Christmas I read two novels each based on the life of artists with a shared experience of spending most of their lives in metal institutions. They both also aimed at becoming excellent sculptors and through popular narrative they were also considered too vital and wild for a woman of their era. Camille Claudel (1864-1943) is quite well known today for her work and not just for her relationship with Auguste Rodin. She did enjoy some success and reputation before her illness stopped her creativity. Above you can see her at work in her studio. Ester Henning (1887-1985) is known in Sweden for her paintings done during her close to 70 years in hospital. She didn't have the chance to develop fully as an artist before she was sent to hospital for the first time, but eventually her artistic creativity was seen as a way of therapy. She could even have some of her works exhibited in galleries. Below you can ses her undated painting Hospitalet. 

Michèle Desbordes' La robe bleue [The blue dress] from 2004 focuses on Claudel's later life when she is living in an mental institution not able to create anything. She is mostly described as sitting on a chair in the garden waiting for visits from her brother. Anna Jörgensdotter's Drömmen om Ester [The dream of Ester], published last year, covers most of Hennings life and her artistic developments, both before and after she was hospitalised. The interesting thing about the novels was their different point of perspective in telling their stories. While Desbordes is talking about Claudel mostly through the gaze of others, Jörgensdotter tries to give Henning a voice to make us understand her. Even if she is described by others, she is allowed to react. Of course, Claudel's and Henning's lives were different in many ways - most of all in their opportunities to make art while being more or less imprisoned - but the novels are also fictions based on two different ideas on "mad women". Claudel in La robe bleue is almost an oddity when Henning in Drömmen om Ester is being treated with more sympathy and empathy. I guess you have figured out which book I recommend you to read...

Like so many others I was chocked and saddened by the death of David Bowie. How can he be gone? He's been around like forever... I even blame him, or I should say thank him, for making me an art historian. Among my first childhood memories is when my older brother got Aladdin Sane as a birthday present - and I was totally mesmerised by the album cover. That pale and yet colourful character that leaked plastic! 

More album covers of Bowie's were equally visually intriguing; Diamond Dogs, Pin Ups and there was one with cartoons on it... I sat and watched them carefully over and over again, but was not allowed to listen to them. And my teenaged brother didn't think it was cool to hang around with his baby sister so I hardly ever heard them. The only song I loved by Bowie as a kid was "Laughing gnome", and even if it still warms my heart it isn't really worth remembering. It was only later, when Scary Monsters was released, I got to know more of his music.

So, thank you David Bowie for my first strong visual experiences - and the music! And my brother should of course have some credit for introducing me to Bowie.