The lives of impressionist artists have always intrigued me. I’d imagine lunch with Renoir, soirées with Manet, a bit of gossip with Degas, a forbidden absinthe (or two) with Pissarro and Sisley. Missing from the pantheon of my imaginary outings were female impressionists. In her new novel, The Lost Masterpiece, author B.A. Shapiro unveils the enigmatic life of Berthe Merisot whose arc to fame demanded a liaison with a group of rebels known as “the band”-and a secret life more exciting than the lives of “the masters of light.”
The novel opens with a notification to Tamara Rubin, high-tech Boston executive. It informs that Tamara has inherited a heretofore-lost painting by Edouard Manet, the great French impressionist whose works hang in museums and galleries worldwide. It seems Tamara is the last descendant of the famous artist and in accordance with the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany, she is the legitimate heir to his work titled, Party on the Seine. Seized by the Nazis, the priceless masterpiece, with a long-embattled history of survival has finally found its rightful home. But not for long! The Manet Foundation and its principal member, Damien Manet, claims he, not Tamara, is the painting’s legitimate heir.
Aside from the main plot, author B.A. Shapiro does a masterful job replicating a labyrinthine history of instantly recognizable artists ---Rembrandt, da Vinci, Titian, Vermeer, Michelangelo---all giants who shaped and influenced the standards of western art for over five hundred years. With equal finesse Shapiro encapsulates the 19th century art scene with its evolution culminating in a lighter, more personal more vivi palate offered by the rebellious group of artists who became known as “the band” later branded, “impressionists.” They not only revolutionized the rigid standards of “old world” art but spawned a new way of seeing the world.
At the center of the novel lies the forbidden (factual) romance between Berthe Morisot and the much married Edouard Manet. Shapiro guides us into an era when women were encouraged to pose as artists’ models but prohibited to express themselves on canvas ---certainly not in any official, public forum. Morisot in fact became a model for Manet’s paintings including his legendary oeuvre, The Balcony. (see below) They became lovers. Manet promises to marry his beautiful model ---once he musters the courage to tell his wife about her.
A scandal, a secret child, and a competitive quest for fame adds to the bizarre paranormal elements ---all of which take up residence in Shapiro’s novel throughout her superbly researched work. Shapiro skillfully untangles the mysterious link between Tamar, a contemporary woman and Berthe Morisot, the little-known 18th century artist’s model whose variegated trajectory to fame was hidden, for decades---beneath layers of paint.
A banquet for lovers of art history and a bouquet to women’s ingenuity.
