Description
Stretching from the late-nineteenth century to the present day, The Lost Masterpiece is wrapped around an enigmatic and powerful painting, Party on the Seine. Stolen by the Nazis. Believed to be destroyed for almost a century. Possibly haunted by the anguished spirit of Impressionist painter Berthe Morisot. It survives a flood, an earthquake, and a fire that destroyed the other artworks around it. What secrets does it hold? What power?
When Tamara Rubin inherits the valuable Party on the Seine, created by the famous ancestor she never knew she had — Édouard Manet — she also inherits a deep history and mystery. As the painting begins to metamorphose into darker and more terrifying versions of itself, Tamara's life is upended. Who was her great-great-great-great-grandmother Berthe Morisot? What wounds, riddles and resentments plagued her, and what lengths will the spirit of Berthe go in order to enact her revenge?
The Lost Masterpiece is a story of love, adultery, betrayal, longing, family secrets, and the birth of Impressionism. Set partly in Paris in the late 1800s, the novel explores the life of a female artist when it was considered improper for a woman to paint seriously. Even as Berthe Morisot socialized and shared a studio with Manet, Degas, Renoir, and others, she carried on a passionate affair with Édouard Manet. Shapiro brings Berthe’s world to life as she traces her work through generations of her descendants and introduces us to a painter as brilliant and original as her male counterparts. Across 150 years of triumphs, struggles, passions, animosities and malevolence, Shapiro shows us how art can open up our senses and enlarge our world.
A fascinating art history novel by B.A. Shapiro that follows 19th-century Impressionist painter Berthe Morisot and her 21st-century great-great-great granddaughter, who inherits a Nazi-looted Édouard Manet painting. For fans of Sarah Dunant, Elizabeth Kostova, Robin Oliveira, and Nancy Horan.
Endorsements
New York Times bestselling author — B.A. Shapiro.