Bernard Malamud 
Pictures of Fidelman [EPUB ebook] 

This is the story in art of the painter Arthur Fidelman, born in the Bronx and spending years of his life in Italy–Rome, Milan, Florence and Venice–pursuing his tumultuous career through adventure and misadventure. What perhaps saved him from disaster (Fidelman is a comic hero whose every next step is a trap sprung by bad luck as though his luck were good) is that he kept his finger in art, perhaps without knowing it seeking "perfection of the life" as well as the work. Six pictures of Fidelman comprise an exhibition.