Dominic Smith weaves a subtle texture of fact between the strands of fiction, reviewer Cushla McKinney finds.
THE LAST PAINTING OF SARA DE VOS
Dominic Smith
Allen & Unwin
Even for those with no interest in art per se, the subterranean realm of art forgery and theft is a fascinating one, and this is the hook Dominic Smith deploys to lure the reader into his latest novel, The Last Painting of Sara de Vos.
Art in 17th-century Holland was a highly regulated industry, and only those belonging to the Guild of St Luke were permitted to sell their works. In such a restricted field, the titular de Vos was something of an anomaly; not only was she the first woman to be admitted to the guild, she also strayed, at least on one occasion, away from the accepted feminine subject of still life painting into the male domain of landscape.
This painting, titled At The Edge of a Wood, depicts a group of ice-skaters watched over by a girl standing barefoot in the snow, and the story opens in 1957 with its theft from the private collection in which it has been held for 300 years. In its place is hung a replica produced by a young Australian art history student and amateur conservator, Eleanor Shipley.
Having herself experienced the elitism and sexism of the 1950s academic art community, Ellie paints the reproduction as much to get inside the artist's head as to subvert the establishment that distains her, and even adds a chapter on de Vos to her PhD thesis on female artists of the Dutch Golden Age.
It is not until after the substitution has occurred that the reality of what she has done sinks in, and although she insists the real painting is returned to its rightful owner, a banker called Marty de Groot (who exacts his own curious revenge on her), the guilt haunts Ellie for years.
Decades later, when canvases both claimed to be At the Edge of a Wood arrive at an exhibition she is curating, her worst fears look set to be realised.
As well as following Ellie and Marty through the events of 1957 and in the lead-up to the exhibition 30 years later, the novel also explores Sarah's life and the story behind the painting, and although centred on Ellie's crime and its consequences, it is as much about the relationship between each of them and the painting as between the characters themselves.
Smith's written descriptions of de Vos' work are impressively vivid, and he weaves a subtle texture of fact between the strands of fiction - de Vos is based on biographical details of several female painters of the time - as well as providing details of the practices of collection, curation, restoration and, of course, forgery.
The Last Painting of Sara de Vos is eminently readable and, while less physically and literarily imposing than novels such as Donna Tartt's The Goldfinch or Michael Frayn's Headlong, probably appeals to a broader audience.
Cushla McKinney is a Dunedin scientist.
