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A review by candacesiegle_greedyreader
The Last Painting of Sara de Vos by Dominic Smith
5.0
This is a marvelous book, a wonderful read. Novels about great painters have been attracting readers since, oh, let's say "Girl with a Pearl Earring." Some of these novels work better than others but "The Last Painting of Sara de Vos" works in all ways and is a pleasure from start to finish.
Sara de Vos is not a famous painter, but she was the first woman to be admitted to the painters guild. Women during the Dutch Golden Age painted still life but Sara also painted scenes with haunting characters, such as "At the Edge of the Wood," the painting this novel is all about. Sara and her husband are both painters, and when the novel opens they have fallen afoul of the Guild's many rules and are struggling to right their careers and livelihoods.
The second branch of the story is set in the 1950s when a young art restorer is hired to forge a copy of the painting, which hangs in the Manhattan home of a Dutch American banker whose family has owned the painting for 400 years.
And then, it's 2000 and both the original and the forgery will come together at an exhibition in Sydney with Ellie, the forger, now a respected art history professor, speaking about Sara's work.
Come on, who could resist ANY of this? Each thread of the story is completely developed and the characters are rich and believable. You learn a lot about the Dutch Golden Age of painting, Rembrandt, Franz Hals, their use of light, the love of Dutch people of all classes for painting. This novel is a treat and a pleasure.
Sara de Vos is not a famous painter, but she was the first woman to be admitted to the painters guild. Women during the Dutch Golden Age painted still life but Sara also painted scenes with haunting characters, such as "At the Edge of the Wood," the painting this novel is all about. Sara and her husband are both painters, and when the novel opens they have fallen afoul of the Guild's many rules and are struggling to right their careers and livelihoods.
The second branch of the story is set in the 1950s when a young art restorer is hired to forge a copy of the painting, which hangs in the Manhattan home of a Dutch American banker whose family has owned the painting for 400 years.
And then, it's 2000 and both the original and the forgery will come together at an exhibition in Sydney with Ellie, the forger, now a respected art history professor, speaking about Sara's work.
Come on, who could resist ANY of this? Each thread of the story is completely developed and the characters are rich and believable. You learn a lot about the Dutch Golden Age of painting, Rembrandt, Franz Hals, their use of light, the love of Dutch people of all classes for painting. This novel is a treat and a pleasure.