An opera based on the novel was produced by Sadler Wells in London in 1958.

The libretto was written by Patrick Terry, manager of the Covent Garden Opera Company; the music was composed by John Gardner. The production was only moderately successful, largely because of the somewhat dissonant score. As might be expected, the opera focuses almost completely on the artist's life in Tahiti. It is seldom revived.

More successful was a cinematic version of the novel released in 1943. In this treatment, George Sanders played Strickland, with Herbert Marshall as the narrator. It, too, takes place largely in the South Seas. Albert Lewin was both author of the screenplay and director. The photography was by John Seitz, and the music by Dmitri Tiomkin. The film, like The Picture of Dorian Gray (based on the Oscar Wilde novel) utilized the device of a combination of black and white footage with...