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.

An interesting read, I picked up this book to fulfill a reading challenge requirement (a book about an artist). There’s a lot of interesting imagery and situations, but the books wasn’t a complete hit for me.

First, I’m not a huge fan of dual timeline (though the author handled it well). I’m not really a fan of 17th century Dutch artwork either, so even though the word pictures were detailed, I’m not a fan of the scenes they depicted.

In general, I prefer the more active style of genre fiction to the descriptive style of literary fiction, but as far as literary novels go, this one did grab my attention and hold it throughout the book. I’m not sure that I’ll read more by Smith, but for fans of the genre, I’d recommend it.

Rated PG-13 for a couple of f-bombs. Get your copy here.

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