I thought it'd be fun to compile a list of PJ Harvey's visual influences and favourites that she mentioned in interviews. Let me kick things off.

Around White Chalk era she was waxing lyrical about Odilon Redon's charcoal sketches:



For Let England Shake she found inspiration in Goya's Disasters of War series...



...and Salvador's Dali Spanish Civil war works:



Anything else that you guys remember?

What a great idea!

She talked about Stanley Kubrick and Ken Loach's films around the time of Let England Shake, in particular Barry Lyndon and The Wind That Shakes the Barley (I guess film can count as a visual art), and there's that drawing of the head of Edvard Munch she did, so I suppose she's an admirer.

It's a very good idea, certainly - and I'm sure (he says vaguely) that I remember her talking about thinking in filmic terms as much as musical
ones. Literary influences are perhaps easier to pick out as they work their way into particular lyrics, but visual influences may contribute more to a general feeling and atmosphere and so may be harder to identify unless she's actually mentioned them specifically. I hadn't read her remarks about Odilon Redon, yet I have a strange memory of having heard a song which made me *think* of Redon, but I can't remember what it is!

An excuse to listen to everything again ...

I love this idea! I love it when she speaks about her visual influences or favourite artists. I couldn't remember reading an interview where she mentioned Redon, so I googled it & here it is for anyone else who might not have read it...

http://www.newsweek.com/pj-harvey-follows-lieder-103351

she wears William Blake's T-shirt so I guess she likes his drawings
near to him I see Fussli, but it's my feeling