I couldn’t decide if the Gretchen scene was supposed to demonstrate Marty’s essential good character – he’s not going to sleep with the vulnerable girl – or his essential bad character – he’s ripe for an affair. I’m firmly in camp “bad behavior” – allowing yourself to get into those situations is the necessary precursor to infidelity. However, the author is a man and I think some men would view that scene as a demonstration of Marty’s restraint.
Yuk. Just saying that bugs me. Maybe I’m wrong. Do we have any men in this group (not to be a complete gender essentialist or anything …)
I actually liked that scene. I did feel like it told us something about Marty. But to put on my literary criticism hat for a moment, I think that’s another scene that was a little less than literary – the ambiguity seemed forced, not subtle.
I’m going for bad character though I’m not sure how vulnerable Gretchen is. He’s definitely flirting with the idea of infidelity. He pulls himself back from the brink this time.
I don’t think Gretchen is too vulnerable. She seems to be fully aware of what is going on, but willing to take the risk of getting involved with the boss. Marty must have had some powerful charisma. I think we have to infer that; it’s a hard thing to write. (Years ago, I read Oldest Living Confederate Widow Tells All, wherein the first person narrator, trying to describe how she ended up with her pretty awful husband, says that the only way to explain it was that he had a voice exactly like James Mason. Ahh, at that point, I got it. )
I’ve been trying to figure out why I don’t loathe Marty for what he did. I think it’s because although his “badness” is undeniable, his remorse is genuine.
What’s interesting is that the old Marty, thinking back, tells Ellie that he liked himself around her more than he ever had before, that courting her revealed his “new, better self” (p. 260). A strange perspective considering that he was that “better” self while using a fake name and lying outrageously to the woman he was supposedly falling in love with.
I wonder how much he ultimately confessed to Rachel. Ellie asks him, “Did your wife ever find out the whole truth?” He doesn’t answer the question directly: “It took years of therapy–a grim Freudian with Danish leather furniture–but we came back from the brink” (p. 261).
Complicated relationships – but I think that’s one of the reasons I liked the book.
Speaking of relationships:
Really only Sara and Tomas have a love that flourishes. And it’s not because of any great romantic overtures or dramatic sacrifices – just two good people, devoted to each other and making it through each day.
^^^ Typed this before reading Mary’s post. Some overlap - great minds and all that …
Marty and Ellie - I don’t particularly like the 1950 versions of either. Both do something worthy of shame. I give Marty more of a pass than I normally do because he steps away from being that man. His entanglement with Ellie seems to make him take a look at who he’s become vs the man he’d like to be. He places an ad in the paper offering a reward for the painting (money/reparations) meant for Ellie. If she herself had returned the painting, he might have had other decisions to make because their relationship has layer upon layer of complication - with at least some degree of love involved. However, Marty doesn’t see Ellie again. Instead he works on his marriage and never strays again. His trip to Australia continues his acts of reparation. It seems to me that of the two of them he works harder at making himself into someone better. Ellie flees and never forges artwork again but she does little (nothing) to repair any damage already done - i.e. leaving the forgery for Gabriel. Does she think the less-than-honest Gabriel won’t do something with it?
I agree, though one thing I was really puzzled by was that the Dutch museum would ever have bought that painting much less lend it to a show without it’s provenance being clear. That was one of the big huh? moments in my reading. It’s my understanding that the description of Sarah’s painting was known in the art world even if no one ever saw it.
The other thing I still don’t understand is what was going on in Marty’s apartment when neither painting was there. I’m very confused about the logistics. I thought the photo was made at some time by persons unknown well before the party. Ellie paints the fake solely from photos. When it’s done they bring in her fake and switch it with the real painting. Except there’s all the weird stuff where the painting is stolen earlier (earlier in the day?) how long does Ellie have both paintings? How could Marty et al possibly not notice it’s missing when it’s hanging right over their bed?
These days a lot of stolen art goes to private collectors because it’s not in their interests to ask too many questions. They just want a Van Gogh or whatever.
The only time Ellie has both paintings is when Marty leaves the fake at her apt so that she’ll find it when she returns from her trip.
He doesn’t notice right away that his painting has been replaced with a forgery. So someone switched the two paintings quickly (and efficiently). Later Gabriel brings the original to Ellie to store temporarily and during that time the ill-fated weekend happens - with Marty leaving the fake at her apt. as they depart. Thanks to Marty dropping off the fake both paintings end up at Ellie’s.
So in the case of the painting Ellie and her cohort (forgot his name) discover, what happens re provenance? They discover it in an attic. Would that raise antennae?
For the discovery in the Dutch attic, the provenance would be based on the fact that the suspected artist was known to have lived in the building, the forensic details about where it was found, whether there is any contemporaneous evidence from the time of the artist’s life that she was working on something like the newly discovered work … things like that.
The only time there is no painting hanging above the bed is after Marty leaves the forgery at Ellie’s apartment but before he buys his original back from Gabriel. I wonder if it was during that period when he was forced to come clean with Rachel. Can you imagine that conversation?
I was very impressed by how carefully the fake painting was wrapped for transport to Australia. Clearly the museum that owned it assumed that the painting was real. The author implied that such a thing would not be surprising. I wonder how fully the provenance would be researched in such a situation.
^ Re @mathmom’s question, maybe they did research the provenance, but came up against skillful forgers – I suppose even museum experts might be fooled from time to time:
Yesterday was my birthday and my gift to myself was taking the day to just read. I finished the book in the late afternoon. I really enjoyed it and I’m enjoying reading all of your thoughts.
If I remember correctly, *The Art Forger/i ended with the admonition that no one really knows the number of forgeries that most likely hang in museums at the moment. Not all forgers/forgeries get caught.
With the exception of Tomas in a bit part, the men in this novel don’t come off very well, do they? We’ve already dissected Marty. Then we have Barent who abandons Sara, Ellie’s father who is distant and dismissive of her, Gabriel the crook, the nasty Joost Blim from the Guild, and those two men that Ellie worked for in her youth – one of whom cruelly ridiculed her after she touched up a painting. What was up with that interaction? Strange, wasn’t it? Why would Michael encourage her to “Come on and take a stab” and “Try to match the strokes if you can,” only to then belittle her?
At one point, Ellie wonders if her resentment wasn’t somehow the impetus for her crime: “She wonders now if the forgery wasn’t a form of retribution, a kind of calculated violence–against Jack and Michael Franke, against the old boy network at the Courtauld Institute, against her own indifferent father” (p. 150).
Cornelis Groen shows kindness to Sara when he doesn’t have to do so.
I feared the worst when this aging bachelor Groen offers Sara a year of employment to work off her husband’s debt. On arriving Tomas shows Sara to a large room at the end of the house and my suspicions escalate. However, Mr. Groen - though somewhat odd - never takes a step in that direction at least. He does make it clear that he expects her to paint what he wants her to paint:
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