The Lady with the Dark Hair

The Lady with the Dark Hair ~ Erin Bartels

Esther Markstrom manages her family’s art museum in Lansing, Michigan. She has spent the last 20 years caring for her artist mother, who suffers from mental illness, and running the museum, which focuses on the art of their ancestor, painter Francisco Vella. She is reunited with one of her art history professors from college, who suggests that the painting that Esther and her mom have in their home, the painting they consider his best, may not actually be authentic.

Viviana Torrens is a Catalanian woman living in 19th century France, working as a scullery maid for an esteemed painter. Francisco Vella is a traveling paint merchant passing through, who asks Viviana to accompany him on his travels. She refuses the offer, while her eye and talent for painting is discovered and encouraged by the painter.

The Lady with the Dark Hair switches back and forth between Esther’s and Viviana’s stories, while Esther works to find out the truth about her painting, and Viviana travels and develops skills. My favorite chapters were those where Viviana is in Paris, and meets up with the three grand dames of Impressionism, Berthe Morisot, Mary Cassatt, and Marie Bracquemond. I loved their conversation about being a woman artist in that time and place…about what they were allowed to paint, how they were allowed to paint, and whether they were allowed to paint at all. I admire these artists not only for their skill, but also for their groundbreaking work, and how they managed to produce amazing art both within and outside of the confines of the prevailing culture of the time. Their conversation mirrored what I learned at the Mary Cassatt and Berthe Morisot exhibits in San Francisco, which were both amazing and so touching. It was because of my trips to visit these exhibits that Maya thought of me when she read the scenes with Cassatt. I really enjoyed this book, though I had some quibbles with the resolution of Viviana’s story, and the narrator drops her t’s, so she says ‘buh-un’ instead of button, which never fails to pull me out of the story and gets on my nerves. Recommended anyway, especially if you are fond of art, especially oil painting, especially Impressionism, or if you have been to and enjoyed the art scene in Lansing.