GREAT READS
- GET IN TOUCH
- WHO ARE YOU?
- SUPPORT US
- HOW DO I...?
-
Something for Art Lovers
Dark water : flood and redemption in the city of masterpieces
Arts, Nonfiction
This dramatic, beautifully written account of the flood that ravaged Florence, Italy, in 1966 weaves heartbreaking tales of the disaster and stories of the heroic global efforts to save the city's treasures against the historic background of Florence's glorious art. On November 4, 1966, Florence, one of the world's most historic cities and the repository of perhaps its greatest art, was struck by a monumental calamity. A low-p...
The forger's spell : a true story of Vermeer, Nazis, and the greatest art hoax of the twentieth century
History, Arts, Biography, Nonfiction
Han van Meegeren's story is one of the footnotes to history. Before and during the Second World War, the Dutch painter sold a number of paintings by Vermeer to high Nazi officials, especially Herman Goering. The Dutch people considered him a collaborator. Then, after the war, it was discovered that the "Vermeers" were actually the work of van Meegeren. The man who had duped Goering became a national hero. Dolnick tells the story in an engaging ma...
I am Rembrandt's daughter
Historical Fiction, Arts
Based on historical fact and filled with family dramas and a love triangle that would make Jane Austen proud, this moving story is a powerful account of a young womans struggle to come of age within the shadow of one of the worlds most brilliant and complicated artists.
The lady and the unicorn
Arts, Historical Fiction, Literary Fiction
Bewitching art experts and enthusiasts alike for centuries, the Lady and the Unicorn tapestries hang today in the Cluny Museum in Paris. In each, an elegant lady and a unicorn stand or sit on an island of grass surrounded by a rich background of animals and flowers. Little is known about them except that they were woven toward the end of the fifteenth century and bear the coat of arms of a wealthy family from Lyons. Tracy Chevalier takes readers ...
Unveiling : a novel
Arts, Literary Fiction
When Rachel Piers, a brilliant conservateuse at a Manhattan art gallery, is given the dream assignment of restoring a mysterious medieval painting in a church in Rome, she uncovers layers of her soul that continue to haunt.
The miracles of Prato
Arts, Historical Fiction, Literary Fiction
A gorgeously imagined tale of a brilliant and tortured artist and a young nun, "The Miracles of Prato" is a breathtaking story of undying devotion, both spiritual and sensual, set at the height of the Italian Renaissance.
The swan thieves : a novel
Arts, Historical Fiction, Literary Fiction
Psychiatrist Andrew Marlow, devoted to his profession and the painting hobby he loves, has a solitary but ordered life. When renowned painter Robert Oliver attacks a canvas in the National Gallery of Art and becomes his patient, Marlow finds that order destroyed. Desperate to understand the secret that torments the genius, he embarks on a journey that leads him into the lives of the women closest to Oliver and a tragedy at the heart of French Imp...
Clara and Mr. Tiffany [a novel]
Susan Vreeland chronicles the lives of acclaimed glass artist Louis Comfort Tiffany and Clara Wolcott Driscoll, whose glass lampshades have commonly been mistaken as Tiffany's work. Here, Vreeland reveals that although both artists may have had different reasons for creating their works, both shared a passion for art.
The forgery of Venus
Thriller, Literary Fiction, Historical Fiction
An artist born outside his time, Chaz Wilmot can paint like Leonardo, Goya, Gainsborough--and he refuses to shape his talent to fit the fashion of the day. His unique abilities attract the attention of Werner Krebs, an art dealer with a dark past and shadier present, and soon Wilmot is working with a fervor he hasn't felt in years. But his creative burst is accompanied by strange interludes--memories that are not memories . . . and he begins to w...
The girl with a pearl earring
Arts, Historical Fiction, Literary Fiction
In seventeenth-century Delft, there's a strict social order -rich and poor, Catholic and Protestant, master and servant -and all know their place. When Griet becomes a maid in the household of the painter Johannes Vermeer, she thinks she knows her role: housework, laundry, and the care of his six children. She even feels able to handle his shrewd mother-in-law; his restless, sensual wife; and their jealous servant. What no one expects is that Gri...
The madonnas of Leningrad
Historical Fiction, Literary Fiction
In this sublime debut novel, set amid the horrors of the siege of Leningrad in World War II, a gifted writer explores the power of memory to save . . . and betray.
