The Last Painting of Sara De Vos

I always find books about artists intriguing, and this one adds a bit of forgery, too. In 1631 Amsterdam, Sara de Vos is widowed, inheriting her husband’s debt. She paints to eke out a living, though that is not easy for a woman of that time and place. In 1957, a young art student agrees to forge one of de Vos’s works, only to be haunted by her crime in Sydney in 2000, when she becomes a famous art historian and curator.

I loved this book when I read it and went back to it again when I later decided… show more.

This ambitious book tells the story of a Dutch master and its influence on three people separated by centuries, and located in mid-17th century Amsterdam at the time of the Dutch masters; in New York in the 1950s; and in Sydney at the turn of the present century.

I love it not only for its splendid story but because it brings women into the art world… both as original artists and as forgers. 

This book masterfully moves between different time periods, the stories of modern museum staff, art dealers and forgers of 30 years earlier, and the life of a little-known Dutch master intertwine into an intricate story that will keep you turning pages.

Like my book, it also explores the roles of women artists in an era where they were marginalized. History has tried to erase women artists and scholars, but if we scratch beneath the surface, we can find them. This book is a nice exploration of what a woman artist’s life would have been during the Dutch Renaissance, and what… show more.

There are so many elements in The Last Painting of Sara DeVos that echo themes in my own work! A female artist who dares to defy convention and gender boundaries. An art history graduate student, a passionless marriage, and the question of who “owns” a work of art. An act of questionable judgment that leads to the unraveling of a carefully-constructed life. How could I not feel a profound kinship with this well-researched, beautifully written, intellectually absorbing novel about the power of art to transform a woman’s life?