Take a photo of a barcode or cover
3.79 AVERAGE
3.79 AVERAGE
I almost always enjoy books set in the art/forgery/heist world, for some reason, but the Dutch masters are really not my era. So I was nervous about this one, and then ended up just loving it! I enjoyed the perspectives of the different actors, from the life of the painter to the stories of both main characters. Delightful!
This was a great story, filled with fleshed out characters jumping from the Netherlands in the 1600 to the 1950s in NYC and the 2000s in Australia. The art conservation descriptions and scientific analysis of paintings were all on point! I should know, I was a conservation scientist (as the scientist in this novel).
Anyway, it was a very entertaining novel featuring a female artist, an art history prof, and an art collector. There is a thread of mystery in the novel, and the denouement is quite perfect.
Anyway, it was a very entertaining novel featuring a female artist, an art history prof, and an art collector. There is a thread of mystery in the novel, and the denouement is quite perfect.
This year I’m discovering that crime in the art world is basically catnip to me. I already raved about Unbecoming earlier this year and I’m about to rave about The Last Painting of Sara de Vos. Both books deftly hop from different narrative viewpoints in time, but The Last Painting of Sara de Vos is much more contemplative and less sinister in tone. This book is less about crime than it is about humans making mistakes and then doing the best they can to live with them.
Fictional artist Sara de Vos lived in the 1600s and was the first woman admitted as a master painter to the Guild of St. Luke’s in Holland. She painted mostly still lifes, but her last known painting is of a mysterious woman in a haunting winter scene called At the Edge of a Wood. In 1950s New York, a young grad student named Ellie Shipley studies female Dutch painters and gets roped into creating a forgery of At the Edge of a Wood. Flash forward to present day where Ellie is curating an exhibit of female Dutch painters and both the real and forged copy of the painting are due to arrive.
Dominic Smith is a talented writer who moves seamlessly from viewpoint to viewpoint. He’s written a novel that kept me engaged and interested in all of the characters throughout the whole book. Not the easiest thing to do with so many moving parts! These characters felt like real people making understandable mistakes with believable motivations. Smith has a quiet intensity about his writing that made this book feel introspective.
Fictional artist Sara de Vos lived in the 1600s and was the first woman admitted as a master painter to the Guild of St. Luke’s in Holland. She painted mostly still lifes, but her last known painting is of a mysterious woman in a haunting winter scene called At the Edge of a Wood. In 1950s New York, a young grad student named Ellie Shipley studies female Dutch painters and gets roped into creating a forgery of At the Edge of a Wood. Flash forward to present day where Ellie is curating an exhibit of female Dutch painters and both the real and forged copy of the painting are due to arrive.
Dominic Smith is a talented writer who moves seamlessly from viewpoint to viewpoint. He’s written a novel that kept me engaged and interested in all of the characters throughout the whole book. Not the easiest thing to do with so many moving parts! These characters felt like real people making understandable mistakes with believable motivations. Smith has a quiet intensity about his writing that made this book feel introspective.
An expertly crafted novel with three storylines connecting the life of a female Dutch painter of the 17th century to the lives of a collector and forger of the 20th century. I listened to the audiobook version of this book and the narrator was excellent.
A great read! My favourite book so far this year. A novel about art, forgery, life, and regret. Slipping between times and locations: 17th century Holland , late 1950s New York and Sydney at the dawn of the new millennium . Wonderful writing, and characterisation, and an element of suspense. A great read for anyone with an interest in art, especially 17th century Dutch art, or possibly for the reader with an interest in forgery. A great read!
The Last Painting of Sara de Vos is beautifully written. Dominic Smith creates a tightly woven book in which the work of a 17th century female Dutch painter becomes the object around which two contemporary characters, a troubled painter turned art historian and a collector of art become entangled. I'm being careful not to give too much away, because part of the joy of reading this book is letting the story unfold. The chapters alternate among three periods - the early 1600's, 1958, and 2000. The structure of the book is masterful. You may think you know where it's all going, but Dominic Smith won't let you down with the obvious. You will want to own the paintings. I loved this book.
Every once in a while I am surprised to find myself unable to like a book that many of my friends have reviewed with 4 and 5 stars. I love art and historical fiction, yet somehow the characters, the time and the settings never came to life for me. Was it the writing, the story or the structure? I'm not sure, maybe it just was not for me.
Complete and unabridged: 9hrs 57 mins
While I was writing The Last Painting of Sara de Vos, I surrounded myself with images from the 17th century, especially paintings and engravings of the Dutch Golden Age. My Sara de Vos is a fictional artist, but I drew on the lives of Judith Leyster and Sara van Baalbergen for inspiration, the first two women painters to be admitted to a Guild of St. Luke in the Netherlands.
Judith Leyster, self-portrait, early 1630s
Although there are some three-dozen of Leyster’s paintings extant, none of Baalbergen’s work has survived (or been correctly attributed). I have had to rely on the male canon to complete the picture of that era.
Looking at these images over the course of a few years, I was reminded how little we know of Dutch Golden Age painting. By some estimates, more than 50,000 Dutch painters were at work across the 17th century but less than 1% of their work has survived. I wanted to write a novel that came out of the gaps and silences of art history.
Upgrades:
NYTimes
A Painterly Playlist
Excerpt
Three Women Painters of the Dutch Golden Age
While I was writing The Last Painting of Sara de Vos, I surrounded myself with images from the 17th century, especially paintings and engravings of the Dutch Golden Age. My Sara de Vos is a fictional artist, but I drew on the lives of Judith Leyster and Sara van Baalbergen for inspiration, the first two women painters to be admitted to a Guild of St. Luke in the Netherlands.
Judith Leyster, self-portrait, early 1630s
Although there are some three-dozen of Leyster’s paintings extant, none of Baalbergen’s work has survived (or been correctly attributed). I have had to rely on the male canon to complete the picture of that era.
Looking at these images over the course of a few years, I was reminded how little we know of Dutch Golden Age painting. By some estimates, more than 50,000 Dutch painters were at work across the 17th century but less than 1% of their work has survived. I wanted to write a novel that came out of the gaps and silences of art history.
Upgrades:
NYTimes
A Painterly Playlist
Excerpt
Three Women Painters of the Dutch Golden Age
Realistically, not quite a 4 star book, but close enough.
Thoroughly entertaining & enjoyable & I learnt a lot about Dutch painting. Could barely put it down. Sat up past midnight to finish it.
The perfect holiday read.
Full review - http://bronasbooks.blogspot.com.au/2016/08/the-last-painting-of-sara-de-vos-by.html
Thoroughly entertaining & enjoyable & I learnt a lot about Dutch painting. Could barely put it down. Sat up past midnight to finish it.
The perfect holiday read.
Full review - http://bronasbooks.blogspot.com.au/2016/08/the-last-painting-of-sara-de-vos-by.html
This novel links three characters and a Dutch Golden Age painting. Sara de Vos is the 17th century Dutch artist who creates it, Marty de Groot the wealthy New York lawyer who owns it in the 1950s, and Ellie Shipley the artist and restorer who copies it. It begins with the theft of the painting from Marty’s home, to be replaced by Ellie’s copy.
The narrative follows the three characters and has something of the atmosphere of a Dutch painting – muted colours, stillness, beautiful imagery. It has much to say about the nature of art and the art world and the themes of the three characters’ stories link and counterpoint one another.
However, there are some weaknesses in the plot. The author sets up strands which are never resolved, such as the question of who is responsible for the theft. The intimacy of the setting, the access, the nature of the relationship Marty has with the painting, suggest the crime might have been personal. This is left hanging, not with a knowing nod from the author saying, I think you can get this, not stitched into the fabric of Marty’s later life and relationships. It’s like the author just forgot.
I wasn’t always convinced by the characters or their motivations. There are also some errors and anomalies – for example Sara witnesses her fellow citizens building bonfires for Shrove Tuesday during Lent (perhaps they’re just getting organised for next year).
The plot somehow manages to both meander and feel contrived. You could argue that doesn’t matter – this is a book about character and ideas, about setting and atmosphere. But the story should grow out of the themes and if the plot’s muddy, it suggests the author’s thinking is too, that he hasn’t quite pushed through to what he wants to say.
There is some lovely writing in this book but I finished it disappointed and thinking it needed a good editor.
*
I received an ARC from the publisher via Netgalley.
The narrative follows the three characters and has something of the atmosphere of a Dutch painting – muted colours, stillness, beautiful imagery. It has much to say about the nature of art and the art world and the themes of the three characters’ stories link and counterpoint one another.
However, there are some weaknesses in the plot. The author sets up strands which are never resolved, such as the question of who is responsible for the theft. The intimacy of the setting, the access, the nature of the relationship Marty has with the painting, suggest the crime might have been personal. This is left hanging, not with a knowing nod from the author saying, I think you can get this, not stitched into the fabric of Marty’s later life and relationships. It’s like the author just forgot.
I wasn’t always convinced by the characters or their motivations. There are also some errors and anomalies – for example Sara witnesses her fellow citizens building bonfires for Shrove Tuesday during Lent (perhaps they’re just getting organised for next year).
The plot somehow manages to both meander and feel contrived. You could argue that doesn’t matter – this is a book about character and ideas, about setting and atmosphere. But the story should grow out of the themes and if the plot’s muddy, it suggests the author’s thinking is too, that he hasn’t quite pushed through to what he wants to say.
There is some lovely writing in this book but I finished it disappointed and thinking it needed a good editor.
*
I received an ARC from the publisher via Netgalley.