Artist as Predator

If I were good at writing, I’d spend a lot of space here talking about how movies and dramas have treated the artist as a madman(rather than a woman), similar to the mad scientist of many a horror film and books. The examples below don’t necessarily match that concept, but they are creepy stories featuring artists and art.

Trilby, pictured above and played by Marian Marsh, is a story by George Du Maurier published in the early 20th century. The protagonist, Trilby, is a young English girl living in Paris and earning a living as a figure model. She is hypnotized by the evil Svengali, a brilliant but vain musician…

I believe you can watch the movie version of Trilby on Netflix under the title Svengali. Better yet, read it for free through Google Books. You can also download a PDF of it. I’m halfway through it and have been reading it on my nook.

Trilby by George Du Maurier (broken link, will re-link)

Bluebeard, a story about a man who … ya know, kills his wives, was made into a movie. The villain’s role was changed into that of an artist. He paints portraits of women and then murders them. Freaky puppets are also involved. Watch the 1944 version of Bluebeard on Hulu.

I also collect radio horror plays. The two links below are on topic! The First is a story about two French art students who roam the countryside for inspiration. The second play is about a ceramicist searching for a perfect ingredient to achieve an unusual glaze. You can download the plays or listen to them online.

• Fear on Four’s By the River Fontainebleau (broken link, will re-upload)

• Nightfall’s Glaze of Perfect Beauty (broken link, will re-upload)

There are many other examples of creepy stories where either the art or artist is menacing, like Oscar Wilde’s Dorian Gray or just about any movie that involves ventriloquists and dummies.