great novels with artists as central characters

Has anybody read a great book lately that have visual artists (semi-biographical or imagined--it doesn't matter) and their practice as a main focus? I just finished reading the Time Traveller's wife and really enjoyed the way Clare spent time as an artists making paper in her studio. For some reason the whole thing fascinated me and I wanted more details. So far I have read Moon Palace by Paul Auster, which sort of deals with painting, and have The Girl with the Peal Earring on my to read list. Is there anything else I should add?

One of my favorite novels, The Recognitions.

My Name is Red by Orhan Pamuk.

As well, depending on how broad your definition is, there's Richard Powers' Plowing the Dark. (It's a difficult but richly rewarding book.) The artists here are concerned with virtual reality, creating artistic landscapes. Plenty of talk about art and architecture.

Chaim Potok's My Name is Asher Lev is one of the most sad and beautiful stories I have ever read in my life. There is a lot of discussion about creation and what it means to be an artist.

The Forgery of Venus features an artist and also a bit of art history.

Some suggestions:

What's Bred in the Bone by Robertson Davies, about an art historian/restoration expert.

Sailing to Sarantium and Lord of Emperors by Guy Gavriel Kay, about a mosaicist living in an alternate version of the Byzantine Empire.

The Griffin & Sabine books by Nick Bantock, about two artists with a very unusual connection.

The Forgetting Room, also by Nick Bantock, about an artist who travels to Spain to deal with some family issues.

The Passion of Artemisia by Susan Vreeland, about a female artist working in the Renaissance.

The Agony and the Ecstasy by Irving Stone, about Michelangelo.

Girl With A Pearl Earring by Tracy Chevalier, about Vermeer.

In addition to the above mentioned The Agony and the Ecstasy (which is very well researched), Irving Stone also wrote Lust for Life, which is about Vincent van Gogh.

Leonardo's Swans has da Vinci as one of the central characters and, if you enjoyed The Time Traveler's Wife, you might also like The Dogs of Babel, in which the wife is an artist who does masks.

Peter Carey's Theft: a love story is about a contemporary Australian painter whose career is lagging. Interesting bits about the "art world"--agents, galleries, etc-- and a lot of information about forgery, historically accurate materials, etc. I wouldn't call it a "great novel," but I definitely liked it.

ETA: Take a look at the tagmash for "artists, fiction"--it's got a lot of the books already mentioned and some others I hadn't thought of.

What I loved has beautiful descriptions of (fictional) works of art. Also Notes from an exhibition (no touch stone) by Patrick Gale, which is very much about the difficulty of combining art and life.

I loved Robert Hellenga's The Sixteen Pleasures, featuring a book conservator.

Louisa May Alcott's Diana and Persis is about a sculptor.

The protagonist of Henry James' The Princess Casamassima is a bookbinder.

Thank you so much everyone and thanks nperrin for that link to artists fiction.

The Moon and Sixpence by Maugham. Not GREAT, but good and readable. Paul Gaugin is the central character.

Art making is one of several main foci of Remembrance of Things Past.

Robert

The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde is a major work that shouldn't be skipped.

Vonnegut's Bluebeard is one of my all-time favorites...

Girl in hyacinth blue by Susan Vreeland is more about a painting than the painter but it goes all the way back to the artist, who is Vermeer again.

I also liked The Portrait by Iain Pears, but I guess it is not for everyone. The novel is a monologue -- the painter talks to his used-to-be-friend who sits for him -- and I've read comments that this form made it hard to read.

Two that haven't been mentioned yet:

The horse's mouth by Joyce Cary is one that often gets forgotten, but is well-worth a look. Very much an artist-as-Bohemian (or even artist-as-tramp) novel.

nperrin mentioned Peter Carey's Theft - another interesting Australian novel about a painter is Patrick White's The vivisector, which is as uncomfortable to read as the title would suggest, but worthwhile if you like White.

Some Canadian authors on creation and art in their storylines.
The Stone Carvers by Jane Urquhart
The Underpainter by the same author as well as Martin Sloane by Michael Redhill

A now-obscure but still fairly entertaining piece by Henry Miller in Black Spring called "The Angel is my Watermark".

#20: Ah, that reminds me--JD Salinger's short story "De Daumier Smith's Blue Period" from Nine Stories. One of my favorite short stories ever. "I think I was afraid I might get over to his desk only to report, shrilly: 'My mother's dead, and I have to live with her charming husband, and nobody in New York speaks French, and there aren't any chairs in your son's room. How do you expect me to teach these two crazy people to draw?' "

Naked Came I by David Weiss is about Rodin who was mainly sculptor. It's a pretty good book and has a lot about the impressionist artists in general.

Burning Bright by Tracy Chevalier deals with the poet William Blake, who also illustrated much of his poetry.

Port Mungo by Patrick Mcgrath