Community Library Notes

“The Last Painting of Sara DeVos” by Dominic Smith is the story of a painting and the people around it. It is a winter scene painted in oil by DeVos in the 1600s. It’s been in the De Groot family for generations, and now hangs in their Manhattan apartment. One night at a charity party at their place, it is stolen and Marty De Groot doesn’t notice the forgery in its place for months.

In 1636, in Amsterdam, a whale beaches on shore and Sara, her husband and daughter go to watch it die. Berendt is an artist and makes sketches of it. On the way home, they stop to buy apples from a boy with yellow eyes. Four days later, their daughter is dead. When winter ends, Sara sees a girl in a field of snow. She paints it.

In 1957, Ellie Shipley works in her kitchen in Brooklyn. She majors in Art History at Columbia, and her dissertation is on Dutch women painters of the Golden Age. She also studies restoration. Gabriel Lodge brings her “At the Edge of a Wood” to copy, saying the owner won’t part with the original. He tells Ellie that De Vos is the first woman admitted to the Guild of St. Luke and this is her only surviving work. Ellie buys an old canvas from antique shops and discarded frames at auction houses.

In Amsterdam, Sara works on a painting of a child’s funeral.

In 2000 in Sydney, Australia, Ellie hosts a party to celebrate the new edition of her book. She has bought a house on Scotland Island and loves her isolation. She awaits a copy of the “Edge of the Wood” painting, although the gallery director has found the new owner of it. The donor is Martin De Groot. He has insisted on bringing the painting to them himself. She knew Gabriel had both paintings, the original and the copy, but she assumed the copy had been destroyed. She envisions herself arrested and being called a crook. When the paintings arrive, they open one crate and five curators step forward, three feet away. In the second crate is a painting of a child’s funeral, dated 1637 and signed.

In 1637, Sara and Barendt were deep in debt. He leaves Sara a note saying he has shipped out on a barge, abandoned her, rather than going to debtors prison.

In 1958, Marty had hired a private investigator. He had seen a frame dealer who had made frames for a regular customer. He kept a logbook and receipts. He finds Ellie’s name several times. She compiles lists of forgery techniques. Author describes these in detail. Ellie’s college advisor tells her it’s a man’s world at university and to keep De Vos in the margins and get on with her life.

Now Marty is on his way to Sydney, Australia, the painting wrapped in a blanket in the seat next to him. Marty is in his 80s and author Smith describes his ailments as an old man. Years before, Marty had decided to call Ellie and to use an alias Jake Albert. He made a date with her to go to an auction of Old Dutch Masters. In 1637, Pieter De Groot had attended an auction by the local Guild and bought a painting of a young girl in the snow.

At the auction with Ellie, Marty teaches her how to bid on paintings. When they go away for a weekend, she looks through his suitcase and finds shirts with monograms on them, and a phone number. Does she call the number and find out who he really is?

In Sydney, Ellie meets with Helen Birch, the museum’s chief conservation scientist. She brings up Adobe Photoshop on her computer. Looking at X-ray images of both “Edge” paintings, she sees in the original that Sara had painted the outline of a woman standing at the edge of the wood. The forger would not have known about this without an X-ray. “Only the artist knows the false beginning.”

Ellie lays both the copy and the original on her bed. She calls Gabriel and tells him to come get it. Does she tell him which is the original? What happens to Marty’s and Ellie’s relationship? Find out in this fine, plot-driven novel at your Mendocino Community Library.