Portraits of an Artist
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"An evocative rendering of the great portraitist, John Singer Sargent, as seen through the eyes of the subjects of his most famous paint-ings. A tour de force of historical and psychological imagination."
--Paula Marantz Cohen, What Alice Knew, Jane Austen in Scarsdale

"John Singer Sargent painted some of the most compelling and psy-chologically revealing portraits of his day, while remaining an enigma to those who knew him. Burns skillfully brings the subjects of his portraits to life, telling their stories in their own voices as the mys-tery of who Sargent really is, and the culture that both supported and constrained him, is gradually and artfully revealed."
--Laurel Corona, Finding Emilie, Penelope's Daughter, The Four Seasons

"Set in the Europe of 1882, the writing is richly subtle and each character exquisitely drawn. One hears murmurs behind doors and the truth just beyond the corner until the hearts of two women--one very young and one very beautiful--are broken forever. In the end of this fascinating novel, however, it is the portrait of the young artist himself, still an enigma, which lingers in the reader's mind. Wonderful writing!"
--Stephanie Cowell, Claude & Camille, Marrying Mozart,
The Players: A Novel of the Young Shakespeare "John Singer Sargent was brilliant, glamorous, rich, famous--and very private. Mary F. Burns' sensuous, fascinating and highly origi-nal novel takes us behind the veil of that privacy by offering a provocative guided tour of some of his wealthy, polyglot portrait subjects. Many of them knew each other, and Burns deftly explores their connections with one another and their tangled relationship to the magnetic but enigmatic artist. Glittering surfaces reveal surpris-ing secrets in bedrooms and galleries, and you couldn't ask for a better docent as you travel from Paris to Venice to Florence to Nice. You'll likely never look at Sargent's glorious portraits in the same way again because Burns has given us a new way of appreciat-ing their genius."
--Lev Raphael, Rosedale in Love: A Gilded Age Novel

"Portraits of an Artist: A Novel About John Singer Sargent is a work of historical fiction based on the life of a brilliant yet troubled artist of the late nineteenth century. A contemporary and associate of high celebrities such as Henry James, Oscar Wilde, Edward Burne-Jones, and Sarah Bernhardt, Sargent's meteoric rise to fame followed by his striking fall from grace, and his retreat to London, are the tragic un-derpinnings of his unforgettable career. The stories behind two of his finest paintings, "The Daughters of Edward Darley Boit" and "Madame X", are also explored in context. Told in first-person per-spective from the points of view of numerous individuals who figured prominently in Sargent's life, "Portraits of an Artist" is an unforgettable reconstruction of a talented man's search to find meaning in life through art. Highly recommended."
--The Fiction Shelf of The Midwest Book Review

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