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A national bestseller from acclaimed?author Iain Pears, The Portrait is a novel of suspense and a tour de force.
An art critic journeys to a remote island off Brittany to sit for a portrait painted by an old friend, a gifted but tormented artist living in self-imposed exile. The painter recalls their years of friendship, the gift of the critic's patronage, and his callous betrayals. As he struggles to capture the character of the man, as well as his image, on canvas, it becomes clear that there is much more than a portrait at stake...
Iain Pears's An Instance of the Fingerpost and The Dream of Scipio are also available from Riverhead Books.
This book is written in the first person and involves no dialog between the characters, instead relying on a combination of the narrator's monologue, responses to "anticipated" questions on the part of the other person, and narrator's recollections in order to move the plot forward. It sounds weird but is fun to read. ( )
A subtle little psychological study of an artist and his subject, an old "friend" and art critic, with a surprising twist at the end. A little bit like Possession—but not so sophisticated and quite a bit darker. ( )
The sense of being inside the artist's head was very effective. Reliving his whole life through his memories and musings was fascinating. Slowly understanding the evolving relationship with his sitter was handled in a very gripping and ultimately menacing way. The relationships with the female characters in the story were all quite troubling. They are portrayed as suspicious and untrustworthy even through the unwilling attraction to them - they really seem to be perceived as largely objects. When they turn out to have strengths, talents, desires, fears and passions beyond the artist's comprehension, they become almost evil - quite disturbing.
Features of the paperback presentation of this wonderful, grimly entertaining novel are fold-out endpapers like a miniature gallery, showing paintings by artists as diverse as Velázquez, Géricault and Whistler. They give promise of the high aesthetic tone which the novel duly fulfils.
Informatie afkomstig uit de Engelse Algemene Kennis.Bewerk om naar jouw taal over te brengen.
To Alex
Eerste woorden
Informatie afkomstig uit de Engelse Algemene Kennis.Bewerk om naar jouw taal over te brengen.
Well, well, well.
Citaten
Informatie afkomstig uit de Engelse Algemene Kennis.Bewerk om naar jouw taal over te brengen.
No mere journalist, then, but something more. You will have the pose of a pope, as painted by Velázquez, to remind everyone of the power that people like yourself wield in our modern world. You command, and it comes to pass. You lift your finger and a reputation is made, shake your head and the hopes nurtured for years in the ateliers, worked for and so desperately desired, are dashed forever. So, you do not move armies, do not wreak destruction on faraway lands like our politicians and generals. You are far more powerful than that, are you not? You change the way people think, shape the way they see the world. A great power, wielded without check or hindrance. A despotism of the arts, in which you are high priest of the true and the beautiful. (pp. 32–3)
Of course I am a charlatan, that little inclination of your head says. That is my profession. We live in an age when appearance is all, and I am the master of it. I am a purveyor of the new upon the public, the intermediary. I persuade people to love what they hate, buy what they do not want, despise what they love, and that can only be done with the techniques of the circus ringmaster. But I am honest, nonetheless, and tell the truth. In that lies my integrity: I am a fraud with a purpose. (p. 54)
Laatste woorden
Informatie afkomstig uit de Engelse Algemene Kennis.Bewerk om naar jouw taal over te brengen.
A national bestseller from acclaimed?author Iain Pears, The Portrait is a novel of suspense and a tour de force.
An art critic journeys to a remote island off Brittany to sit for a portrait painted by an old friend, a gifted but tormented artist living in self-imposed exile. The painter recalls their years of friendship, the gift of the critic's patronage, and his callous betrayals. As he struggles to capture the character of the man, as well as his image, on canvas, it becomes clear that there is much more than a portrait at stake...
Iain Pears's An Instance of the Fingerpost and The Dream of Scipio are also available from Riverhead Books.
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Google Books — Bezig met laden...
(3.44)
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