Featured Book: The Last Painting of Sara de Vos by Dominic Smith

Sara Trucksess

The Last Painting of Sara de Vos by Dominic Smith is a suspenseful art novel told from a trio of differing perspectives, time periods and locations across the globe. Spun from the imaginary life of Sara de Vos, a rare and much-celebrated female painter from the Dutch Golden Era, this novel takes on almost a modern Thomas Crown Affair type feeling (if the “Affair” had continued slowly for more than 50 years). Prepare for deceit, romance and desperation as an original painting and its forgery mingle with mystery over several centuries from the Netherlands to New York City to Sydney, Australia.

At times planted firmly in the cold climate and harsh reality of 17th century Holland, Smith portrays the hardships and almost slave-like indebtedness of his fictional Dutch female painter while she struggles to repay debts to her local artists’ guild and grapple with her under-appreciated talents as a female artist. Likewise, three centuries later, in mid-century New York, a young art restorer …