Exploring 'How To Paint A Dead Man' By Sarah Hall

How to Paint a Dead Man, published in 2009, is British author Sarah Hall's fourth novel. The book comprises four interconnected narratives, each with its own distinct voice and time period, from the 1960s to the present. The characters include a dying painter, a blind girl, a landscape artist, and an art curator, exploring themes of art, life, death, and grief. Hall's ambitious and poetic writing style has been praised for its technical prowess and ability to weave together complex stories and characters.

A dying painter, Signor Giorgio, who paints still lifes of bottles

In Sarah Hall's novel, How to Paint a Dead Man, Signor Giorgio is a dying painter in Italy, who has retreated from the world and, for many years, has painted only the bottles in his studio. He is an acclaimed still-life painter who discovers in his old age that he is dying of cancer.

Giorgio's character is thought to be modelled on the real painter, Giorgio Morandi, who was known for his still-life paintings of bottles and vases. Similarly, Signor Giorgio's artwork focuses on the bottles in his studio, which he arranges and paints meticulously.

As a dying painter, Giorgio's narrative is one of the four interconnected storylines in the novel. His story is told alongside that of a blind girl, a landscape artist, and an art curator, with each character losing something precious, be it their life, their sight, or a family member. The novel explores the role of art in the lives of these characters and how it can serve as a compensation or path to understanding life more profoundly.

Giorgio's story, in particular, delves into his seclusion and his dedication to his art, even as he faces his mortality. His paintings of bottles become a reflection of his life and his acceptance of death, mirroring the novel's title, which refers to instructions on how to paint a corpse so that it looks properly dead.

A blind girl, Annette Tambroni, who visits the painter's grave

In Sarah Hall's novel, "How to Paint a Dead Man", the blind girl Annette Tambroni visits the grave of the painter Signor Giorgio. Annette, a florist and former student of Giorgio, loses her sight and must navigate a world that is both more intense and dangerous than the one she used to see.

Annette's chapters are where Hall does her most creative work. We learn how Annette lost her sight and experience what it's like to "see" from her perspective. She is extremely intuitive and has a unique way of perceiving the world, converting sounds and smells into images. Despite her blindness, she has a keen sense of the people and world around her.

Annette's story is one of the four interconnected narratives in the novel, each narrated in a different voice and point of view. The common theme across the narratives is the role of art in our lives and the exploration of philosophical questions about art and creativity. Hall's novel is a meditation on loss and the ways in which art can provide compensation and a path towards understanding life more profoundly.

Annette's character and her visit to Giorgio's grave serve as a powerful exploration of perception and the ways in which individuals contend with the limits of their bodies and creativity. Her journey highlights the nuances and subtleties that exist in the spaces between sight and blindness, life and death, and the beauty and intensity that can be found within them.

An up-and-coming artist, Peter Caldicutt, who corresponds with the painter

Peter Caldicutt is an up-and-coming artist and landscape painter who lives in Cumbria. He is the father of Suzie Caldicutt, a photographer who is grieving the loss of her twin brother. Peter's story begins several years before the death of his son, and he is described as middle-aged, bolshy, bluff, sentimental and vulnerable.

Peter's life is threatened by the very landscape he loves to paint. He becomes trapped on a mountainside and spends the night in agony, with his foot stuck between two rocks. This brings him face to face with harsh reality. He writes unanswered letters to Giorgio, a painter in Italy whom he has never met. Peter's letters to Giorgio go unanswered.

Peter's character is described as a "marvellous" example of a particular kind of masculinity. He is a confident, emotional, intelligent, and intense man. He lives his life with "outrageous gusto and carelessness".

Peter's daughter, Suzie, is a complex character in her own right. She is a 35-year-old photographer who is struggling to cope with the death of her twin brother. She has violent feelings towards a friend who is lying comatose in the hospital and cheats on her boyfriend with a married man. Suzie's method of dealing with her grief is to undertake an adulterous affair, rather than returning to her art.

The artist's daughter, Susan, who is a curator and is mourning her dead twin

Susan, the artist's daughter, is a central character in Sarah Hall's novel, 'How to Paint a Dead Man'. The novel is structured around four interconnected narratives, with Susan's story being one of them.

Susan is a curator and photographer, and she is mourning the death of her twin brother. As a child, Susan struggled with her identity as a twin, and after her brother's death, she finds it difficult to separate herself from her grief. She distances herself from her bereavement by using the second person, "you", to refer to herself, creating a sense of detachment.

Susan's narrative is told in the second person, which creates an engaging and intimate connection with the reader. This narrative choice reflects Susan's struggle to define herself as an individual, both in her childhood and in her grief.

Susan's story is also marked by her father's, Peter's, presence. Peter is a middle-aged landscape painter who lives with gusto and carelessness. He writes unanswered letters to the Italian painter, Giorgio, and his life is threatened by the Cumbrian landscape he loves to paint.

Through Susan's narrative, Hall explores themes of grief, identity, and the role of art in coping with loss. Susan's story is a meditation on the effects of loss and how art can provide a path to understanding and compensating for that loss.

The role of art in our lives

In her novel, "How to Paint a Dead Man", Sarah Hall explores the role of art in our lives through the interconnected stories of four individuals: a dying painter, a blind girl, a landscape artist, and an art curator. Each character's narrative touches on different philosophical questions about art and its place in our lives.

The dying painter, Giorgio, is modelled on the real-life painter Giorgio Morandi, who, in his old age, retreated from the world and painted only the bottles in his studio. This theme of seclusion and the focus on inanimate objects as a means to understand living art is echoed in the novel, with Hall's artist character stating that "only through still life can one establish the true essence of what painting is all about". Through this exploration of still life, Hall invites readers to consider the role of art in helping us understand our own mysteries and the true essence of life.

The blind girl, Annette, loses her sight and begins to inhabit a world that is both more intense and more dangerous than the one she could previously see. This narrative arc highlights the role of art in compensating for loss and providing a path through beauty to a more profound understanding of life. Annette's chapters are where Hall does her most creative work, converting sounds and smells into images and offering a unique perspective on the world.

The landscape artist, Peter, is brought face to face with the harsh reality of his own mortality when he finds his life threatened by the very landscape he loves to paint. This storyline delves into the role of art as a means of capturing moments, slowing down life, and confronting the limits of our bodies and creativity in the face of mortality.

Finally, the art curator, Suzie, is grieving the loss of her twin brother and struggling with her own identity. Her journey explores the role of art in processing grief and finding meaning in life.

Throughout the novel, Hall uses art as a lens to examine the human condition, touching on themes of love, lust, passion, desperation, and loss. Her characters' relationships with art reveal their nuanced emotions and provide a deeper understanding of their lives. "How to Paint a Dead Man" is a thoughtful exploration of the role of art in our lives, inviting readers to consider the ways in which art influences our perceptions, emotions, and understanding of the world.

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