Susan Vreeland, author of novels exploring about art and artists, died on Monday. She was 71.
Perhaps her best-known novel was Girl in Hyacinth Blue (1999), about an alleged painting by Vermeer and its various owners over the centuries. Other works included The Passion of Artemisia, focusing on the inner life of Italian Baroque painter Artemisia Gentileschi; The Forest Lover, a fictionalized account of the life of Canadian painter Emily Carr; Life Studies, stories about Impressionist and Post-Impressionist painters from the points of view of people who knew them; Luncheon of the Boating Party, about Renoir and his world as he creates his masterwork; and Clara and Mr. Tiffany, about Clara Driscoll, who conceived and designed Tiffany Lamps.