The Lady with the Dark Hair

Starred review from February 1, 2024
Bartels (The Girl Who Could Breathe Underwater, 2022) perfectly meshes the stories of two women, both artists, living half a world and nearly a century-and-a-half apart. When scullery maid Viviana Torrens is sent on an errand to her master's studio, she is suddenly thrust into the role of artist's model alongside Francisco Vella, a pigment merchant from Gibraltar. When her secret history is discovered, she flees with Francisco, pretending to be his sister. Traveling his trade route through France, Tunisia, and Morocco to Gibraltar, Viviana becomes an accomplished artist and meets Mary Cassatt and other women painters in Paris. Alternating chapters set in present-day East Lansing, Michigan, feature Esther Markstrom, who is running the small museum and gallery her family has owned for generations and caring for her mother, a talented artist incapacitated by schizophrenia. The museum features paintings by her ancestor, Francisco Vella, an underappreciated nineteenth-century painter. When Esther's former art history professor visits, questions arise about Vella's most famous painting, The Lady with the Dark Hair. As the professor and Esther research the painting, they discover the unexpected. Bartels' settings and historical details are unusual and compelling; the dual time lines work perfectly, and this well-researched historical tale has the pacing of a thriller.

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