Art and literature go hand in hand like sausages and mashed potatoes. They’re both great on their own, but they compliment each other wonderfully and create a happy marriage. Seeing an artwork after reading the literature that goes along with it helps add imagery and visualization that may not have been possible without it. Sure, we can create our own image in our head of the time, place, and storyline by using the descriptions and imagery in the text, but there is something so real and confronting about art that was specifically created to resemble the same period.
Children’s books are often illustrated with fairly simplistic artwork to help tell the story alongside the author’s words, and I feel that seeing art alongside a piece of literature is like the adult version of this. The imagination can run wild with the words on a page, but it can be very grounding and at the same time open so many other doors to see relevant pieces of artwork.
Sometimes, when a piece of literature is set in a time period or place that the reader isn’t familiar with, it can be difficult to really imagine it and feel the intended impact of the author’s words, and that is where pieces of relevant artwork really come into play, to help lift the writing up to another level where it can be even more impressive and moving. To be able to see an actual visual representation of perhaps what the author saw, or was envisioning, as they were writing helps to guide the reader to be a lot more empathetic with the piece, and provide much more commentary. There are sometimes no words to properly describe the beauty of a landscape, or the way people felt, and that is where art becomes helpful to literature. The relationship is flattering in the opposite direction also, however, as a great piece of art can sometimes become much more impactful alongside a piece of literature or writing that helps to interpret and offer an explanation to further an understanding.
Lilly Flack Literature Blog 
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