I hope this finds each of you HEALTHY and anticipating a blessed, if possibly smaller gathering of loved ones this Thanksgiving. As we are approaching the holiday season in what could truly be described as a uniquely trying year, I thought I would share a new discovery of mine that might perk up your holidays. This blog is aimed at art collectors and I have discovered over the years that art collectors love stories about the weird and wonderful art world. A quick personal disclaimer… I am an avid reader of novels and devoted listener to audio books. On the treadmill, in the car between appointments, sliding off to sleep, you will find me raptly listening to the next story. I love a well-crafted mystery, a great crime thriller, but my favorite genre of them all is historic fiction. Having covered every book written by Ken Follette, John Grisham, John Hart, Pat Conroy, James Lee Burke, his talented daughter Alifair Burke and scads of single novel offerings by various authors, I was casting about for a new author to fall in love with when I saw a listing for B. A. Shapiro and her three novels inspired by real occurrences in art history. Shapiro uses artwork, dealers, the mysteries and powers of the art itself and those who make, collect, curate, sell and steal the works in her thrilling novels. What a find!
The books are listed here in order of publication, oldest to newest. I will give a brief synopsis so that you can choose one to begin. The storylines are separate so you can start with any of them. Once you read the first, Ms. Shapiro’s style will hook you and your holiday reading list will be full. First a disclaimer… normally, book reviews are released just at the moment the book is released to the public. This review is way too old to be helpful in that way. These books have been out for some time and Ms. Shapiro was a celebrated author of many novels before she began to weave her characters into art history. I am writing this to celebrate my joy in finding an author new to me. If you’ve already read these, I hope you enjoyed them as much as I did.
The Art Forger: A Novel. Published May, 2013
The story revolves around the very real 1990 theft of thirteen works from Boston’s Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum. That theft has never been solved; the works have disappeared despite the ongoing efforts of the FBI and several other international law enforcement teams and despite a standing reward of $ 10 million for information leading to the recovery of the pieces. Ms. Shapiro uses this historic event as a jumping off point for her story that involves a struggling painter who keeps a roof over her head by painting very good and perfectly legal reproduction copies of known masterworks for an online dealer, a request to her from an upscale gallery owner to copy one of the best-known lost paintings, one of Degas’ “Bathers,” from the original painting, and lots of interweaving of possible personal relationships between Ms. Gardner and the artists whose work she collected, with back-stabbing and intrigue in the modern art world.
Be careful if you think you are learning the actual back-room history of the events. The theft was real. The prejudices and bad dealings of artworld insiders ring true. But the rest is pure fiction, even the Degas masterpiece around which the story swirls. While there were three Degas sketches taken in the heist of the museum, Degas’ “Bathers” was not among the stolen pieces. This rollicking tale gives some great, imagined historical relationships, some real backroom information on how art forgers work and throws rocks through the glass houses of modern-day art experts and museum elites.
The Muralist: A Novel. Published November, 2016
This offering inserts the main protagonist, Alizée Benoit into the friendship group of some of the artists who were to become leading abstract painters, Mark Rothko, Lee Krasner, Jackson Pollock and crew. The story begins in the 1930’s, in the lead-up to WWII, when this group of painters was employed by the Works Progress Administration to produce social realist murals in public buildings. Ms. Benoit is a French Jew with lots of family in Europe, desperate to escape the voracious sweep of Nazism bearing down on all European Jews. The story is panoramic in its breadth, spanning from the 1950’s to 2015 and introducing great artists and Eleanor Roosevelt as characters. It questions the America First politics of the 1930’s that not only kept America out of the war but also denied access to almost all refugees and could have saved so many lives.
The Collector’s Apprentice: A Novel. Published June, 2019
This story follows the life of a young Belgian woman who grew up in a wealthy art-loving family but has been thrown out by them because her fiancé bilked her family out of their wealth and the family believes she was part of the con. She flees to France and changes her name. She is desperate to find honest employment to support herself and because of her fluency in both French and English, she gets an introduction to a young American collector who is voraciously buying up Impressionist and Post Impressionist works of art for a museum he intends to establish in his hometown of Philadelphia. The American collector is based on the real-life eccentric and cantankerous Albert C. Barnes. The story wraps them into the world of the art elite in Paris, including Gertrude Stein’s salon group, with Picasso, Matisse and many others. Shapiro plays with the known combativeness and unique sensibilities of Barnes, weaving the real-life battles he waged with his hometown to show his collection just as he wanted it shown, to keep control of the collection and severely limit access even though he demanded tax-exempt status. The collector and his assistant travel back and forth between Europe and America. A love story between our young Belgian protagonist and Henri Matisse develops, complicated because the collector has also fallen in love with his assistant. The untimely death of the American collector propels the story forward. Caution once again… while based on the Barnes collection, our fictional collectors have a well-written interesting story that is not at all limited by historical truth.
If you are as passionate about the intrigues of the art world as I am, you will adore these books. And since the holidays are approaching, we should all take some time to curl up with a good book. Wishing you and yours health, peace, joy and great art finds!
Best,
Brenda