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misajane79 's review for:
Strapless: John Singer Sargent and the Fall of Madame X
by Deborah Davis
Book club book
This is what I term "gossipy history"--which I am perfectly okay with! Davis does an excellent job of setting the stage for Sargent's controversial painting. Paris, and all the interesting people that lived there in the 1880s, certainly come to life (Sarah Bernhardt--crazy! which somehow, I didn't know).
But it's the reaction to the painting that makes this story so interesting. And what happens to Sargent's career, and Amelie's life, after. Good stuff, but somehow I felt this was a story that could almost have been done in an article rather than a whole book.
This is what I term "gossipy history"--which I am perfectly okay with! Davis does an excellent job of setting the stage for Sargent's controversial painting. Paris, and all the interesting people that lived there in the 1880s, certainly come to life (Sarah Bernhardt--crazy! which somehow, I didn't know).
But it's the reaction to the painting that makes this story so interesting. And what happens to Sargent's career, and Amelie's life, after. Good stuff, but somehow I felt this was a story that could almost have been done in an article rather than a whole book.