words in scarlet ink

My last book of 2019 was The Art Forger by B.A. Shapiro.

I won’t say it was bad, exactly, but there were parts of it I didn’t care for at all.

The plot is set against the backdrop of the still unsolved theft of thirteen priceless paintings from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in 1990, the most valuable of which were taken from ‘The Dutch Room.’ The most valuable piece of art itself was a painting called ‘The Concert‘ by Johannes Vermeer (a work you are probably more familiar with is ‘Girl With a Pearl Earring‘). There are only 34 paintings that are attributed to him in the world. In spite of a ten million dollar reward, the stolen artwork has never been recovered. Considering the value of the artwork is now considered upwards of $600 million, maybe no takers for the rather generous reward isn’t surprising. You can read more about the art theft here and here.

Claire Rothe makes her living forging famous artworks for an online retailer. She enters into a Faustian bargain with a gallery owner who will show her own original artwork if she’ll forge one of the Degas works stolen in the heist. Claire doesn’t ask questions about how the supposedly original Degas work from the theft was acquired but she begins to suspect it’s also a forgery. Claire is made out to be particularly hard up; even though she is a talented artist with an excellent talent and skillset, she is persona non-grata in the art world.

And this is the part of the story that I really, really didn’t like. Claire is persona non-grata in the art because while she was sleeping with one of her professors who is the great artist Isaac somebody or other (who I think is also cheating on his wife), he’s having some kind of artistic block and she paints a painting for him that he takes credit for. It becomes absurdly famous and when she says, “Hey, I painted that, give me credit,” he turns on her. There’s an investigation where she reproduces the work and he can’t, but the investigation concludes that she forged the work basically so everyone can save face. Isaac eventually kills himself without clearing her name (still, yay though) and Claire is blamed for this and is further unwelcome in any meaningful art circles.

There was also the inevitable romance with the gallery owner that left me sighing in ‘Can we please get past this part?’ as well. He’s young and rich and handsome and charming and in over his head and Claire saves him. It was so predictable.

Anyway. What I really liked about The Art Forger was the art stuff. The art history, the oddly specific information about paint, the mystery of the Gardner Museum theft and the mystery of Gardner herself. The mystery about the shady dealings of the gallery owner was also actually pretty good in terms of plot. The only stuff I really disliked was Claire’s ‘Backstory of Sad and Dumb’ which was a lot of the book. I dunno. Maybe I am unusual or dysfunctional or programmed incorrectly or whatever, but I never fell for manipulative guys like Isaac. I never believed them when they said only I could help them. I love my husband very much but I don’t for one second think that I am the only one who can save him from his own artistically void state of blah blah blah BS. Most romance bores me at the best of times and this tragic romance of young woman manipulated by her professor into painting a masterpiece she never gets credit for and he kills himself over thereby doubling her burden had me rolling my eyes so hard I pulled a muscle.

I guess this book is for somebody. It wasn’t for me. The art stuff was awesome. The rest? Meh.