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(3.44) | 76 | Fiction.
HTML: 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. . … (more) |
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To Alex  | |
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Well, well, well. | |
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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) | |
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▾References References to this work on external resources.  Wikipedia in English
None ▾Book descriptions Fiction.
HTML: 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. . ▾Library descriptions No library descriptions found. ▾LibraryThing members' description
| Haiku summary |
Come, old friend, I will
paint your portrait and show the
world your character.
(passion4reading) | |
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The whole book consists of a series of monologues from the artist to the sitter while he's painting, exploring what has brought them that point. Although the ending is fairly predictable early on it is only in the last 30 pages or so (out of 210) that we learn the motivation behind it. Something of a tour de force. (