image of person or book cover 6795830968716532969.jpg
Cover image courtesy of publisher.
y separately published work icon The Last Painting of Sara de Vos single work   novel   historical fiction  
Issue Details: First known date: 2016... 2016 The Last Painting of Sara de Vos
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AbstractHistoryArchive Description

'This is what we long for: the profound pleasure of being swept into vivid new worlds, worlds peopled by characters so intriguing and real that we can't shake them, even long after the reading's done. In his earlier, award-winning novels, Dominic Smith demonstrated a gift for coaxing the past to life. Now, in The Last Painting of Sara de Vos, he deftly bridges the historical and the contemporary, tracking a collision course between a rare landscape by a female Dutch painter of the golden age, an inheritor of the work in 1950s Manhattan, and a celebrated art historian who painted a forgery of it in her youth.

'In 1631, Sara de Vos is admitted as a master painter to the Guild of St. Luke's in Holland, the first woman to be so recognized. Three hundred years later, only one work attributed to de Vos is known to remain–a haunting winter scene, At the Edge of a Wood, which hangs over the bed of a wealthy descendant of the original owner. An Australian grad student, Ellie Shipley, struggling to stay afloat in New York, agrees to paint a forgery of the landscape, a decision that will haunt her. Because now, half a century later, she's curating an exhibit of female Dutch painters, and both versions threaten to arrive. As the three threads intersect, The Last Painting of Sara de Vos mesmerizes while it grapples with the demands of the artistic life, showing how the deceits of the past can forge the present.' (Publication summary)

Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of

    • New York (City), New York (State),
      c
      United States of America (USA),
      c
      Americas,
      :
      Sarah Crichton Books ,
      2016 .
      image of person or book cover 6795830968716532969.jpg
      Cover image courtesy of publisher.
      Extent: 384p.
      Note/s:
      • Published May 2016
      ISBN: 9780374106683
    • Crows Nest, North Sydney - Lane Cove area, Sydney Northern Suburbs, Sydney, New South Wales,: Allen and Unwin , 2019 .
      image of person or book cover 5737382638182943183.jpg
      Image courtesy of publisher's website.
      Extent: 408p.
      Edition info: Paperback
      Note/s:
      • Published: 6th May 2019
      ISBN: 9781760528171
Alternative title: Het Laatste Schilderij Van Sara de Vos
Language: Dutch
    • Amsterdam,
      c
      Netherlands,
      c
      Western Europe, Europe,
      :
      Uitgeverij Q ,
      2016 .
      image of person or book cover 301703243552812561.jpg
      This image has been sourced from Amazon
      Extent: 334p.
      Note/s:
      • Published 15 April 2016
      ISBN: 9789021401751

Other Formats

  • Large print.
  • Sound recording.

Works about this Work

Keyvan Allahyari and Dominic Smith in Conversation Keyvan Allahyari (interviewer), 2017 single work interview
— Appears in: Antipodes , June vol. 31 no. 1 2017; (p. 151-157)

'The novel is peopled by artists, art dealers, critics, patrons of art, forgers, and curators. For this novel, there were three essential "informants": Stephen Gritt, the head of restoration at the National Gallery of Canada; Frima Fox Hofrichter, an art historian who specializes in Judith Leyster and women painters of the seventeenth century; and Ken Perenyi, a master forger who wrote a fascinating memoir called Caveat Emptor. [...]I think the opposite-that Australians understand they are playing on the world stage, and often at the top tier, across all the artistic fields. [...]the moral forgery at the center of the book is much more interesting to me dramatically, as a fiction writer-and it's also the bigger moral failure, in my view.' (Publication abstract)

Truth and Fakery in a Work of Fine Art Katharine England , 2016 single work review
— Appears in: The Advertiser , 9 July 2016; (p. 36)

— Review of The Last Painting of Sara de Vos Dominic Smith , 2016 single work novel
Gaps and Silences Kerryn Goldsworthy , 2016 single work review
— Appears in: Australian Book Review , June-July no. 382 2016; (p. 24)

— Review of The Last Painting of Sara de Vos Dominic Smith , 2016 single work novel
The Last Painting of Sara de Vos Review: Dominic Smith's Brilliant Art Novel Louise Swinn , 2016 single work review
— Appears in: Brisbane Times , 2 June 2016;

— Review of The Last Painting of Sara de Vos Dominic Smith , 2016 single work novel
'The Last Painting of Sara de Vos is the fourth novel by Dominic Smith, an Australian living in Texas. The plot is so rich that the description of it could sound too dense, but Smith weaves his tale with a light touch. The book centres on the influence of a painting on three people across centuries: mid-17th century Amsterdam, the time of the Dutch masters; New York in the 1950s; and Sydney at the turn of this century.'
A Picture of Art and Its Sense of Mystery Louise Swinn , 2016 single work review
— Appears in: The Sydney Morning Herald , 4-5 June 2016; (p. 26) The Age , 4-5 June 2016; (p. 26)

— Review of The Last Painting of Sara de Vos Dominic Smith , 2016 single work novel
Dutch Courage Fiona Purdon , 2016 single work review
— Appears in: The Courier-Mail , 30 April 2016; (p. 36)

— Review of The Last Painting of Sara de Vos Dominic Smith , 2016 single work novel
'A novel links a 17th-century painting with three lives on three continents over three centuries I had the realisation that there was this missing layer of the Dutch Golden Age of painting …'
Dominic Smith, The Last Painting of Sara de Vos SH , 2016 single work review
— Appears in: The Saturday Paper , 21 May 2016;

— Review of The Last Painting of Sara de Vos Dominic Smith , 2016 single work novel
Tender Portrait of Loss Spans the Centuries James Bradley , 2016 single work review
— Appears in: The Weekend Australian , 28-29 May 2016; (p. 20)

— Review of The Last Painting of Sara de Vos Dominic Smith , 2016 single work novel
A Picture of Art and Its Sense of Mystery Louise Swinn , 2016 single work review
— Appears in: The Sydney Morning Herald , 4-5 June 2016; (p. 26) The Age , 4-5 June 2016; (p. 26)

— Review of The Last Painting of Sara de Vos Dominic Smith , 2016 single work novel
Gaps and Silences Kerryn Goldsworthy , 2016 single work review
— Appears in: Australian Book Review , June-July no. 382 2016; (p. 24)

— Review of The Last Painting of Sara de Vos Dominic Smith , 2016 single work novel
A Pair of Ragged Claws Stephen Romei , 2016 single work column
— Appears in: The Weekend Australian , 27-28 February 2016; (p. 17)
Dominic Smith Caroline Baum (interviewer), 2016 single work interview
— Appears in: The Sydney Morning Herald , 21-22 May 2016; (p. 22) The Saturday Age , 21-22 May 2016; (p. 24)
Keyvan Allahyari and Dominic Smith in Conversation Keyvan Allahyari (interviewer), 2017 single work interview
— Appears in: Antipodes , June vol. 31 no. 1 2017; (p. 151-157)

'The novel is peopled by artists, art dealers, critics, patrons of art, forgers, and curators. For this novel, there were three essential "informants": Stephen Gritt, the head of restoration at the National Gallery of Canada; Frima Fox Hofrichter, an art historian who specializes in Judith Leyster and women painters of the seventeenth century; and Ken Perenyi, a master forger who wrote a fascinating memoir called Caveat Emptor. [...]I think the opposite-that Australians understand they are playing on the world stage, and often at the top tier, across all the artistic fields. [...]the moral forgery at the center of the book is much more interesting to me dramatically, as a fiction writer-and it's also the bigger moral failure, in my view.' (Publication abstract)

form y separately published work icon The Book Club [May 2016] Sydney : Australian Broadcasting Corporation , 2016 15259467 2016 film/TV

Host Jennifer Byrne joins regular panelists Marieke Hardy and Jason Steger, and guests Jeanette Winterson and Virginia Gay to discuss and review the classic book Wuthering Heights and Australian novel, The Last Painting of Sara De Vos by Dominic Smith.

What I’m Reading—Heather Rose Heather Rose , 2016 single work column
— Appears in: Meanjin Online 2016;
Last amended 2 Oct 2020 14:18:57
Settings:
  • Holland,
  • New York (City), New York (State),
    c
    United States of America (USA),
    c
    Americas,
  • 1631
  • 1950s
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