Dominic Smith

A rare seventeenth-century painting links three lives, on three continents, over three centuries in the last painting of Sara de Vos, an exhilarating new novel from Dominic Smith.Amsterdam, 1631: Sara de Vos becomes the first woman to be admitted as a master painter to the citys Guild of St. Luke. Though women do not paint landscapes (they are generally restricted to indoor subjects), a wintry outdoor scene haunts Sara: She cannot shake the image of a young girl from a nearby village, standing alone beside a silver birch at dusk, staring out at a group of skaters on the frozen river below. Defying the expectations of her time, she decides to paint it.New York City, 1957: The only known surviving work of Sara de Vos, At the Edge of a Wood, hangs in the bedroom of a wealthy Manhattan lawyer, Marty de Groot, a descendant of the original owner. It is a beautiful but comfortless landscape. The lawyers marriage is prominent but comfortless, too. When a struggling art history grad student, Ellie Shipley, agrees to forge the painting for a dubious art dealer, she finds herself entangled with its owner in ways no one could predict.Sydney, 2000: Now a celebrated art historian and curator, Ellie Shipley is mounting an exhibition in her field of specialization: female painters of the Dutch Golden Age. When it becomes apparent that both the original At the Edge of a Wood and her forgery are en route to her museum, the life she has carefully constructed threatens to unravel entirely and irrevocably.

From the award-winning author of the acclaimed bestseller The Last Painting of Sara de Vos comes a radiant new novel tracing the intertwined fates of a silent film director and his muse.The Electric Hotel winds through the nascent days of cinema in Paris and Fort Lee, New Jersey - Americas first movie town - and the battlefields of Belgium during World War I. A sweeping work of historical fiction, it shimmers between past and present as it tells the story of the rise and fall of a prodigious film studio and one mans doomed obsession with all that passes in front of the viewfinder.For nearly half a century, Claude Ballard has been living at the Hollywood Knickerbocker Hotel. A French pioneer of silent films, who started out as a concession agent for the Lumiere brothers, the inventors of cinema, Claude now spends his days taking photographs of Sunset Boulevard. But when a film-history student comes to interview Claude about The Electric Hotel - the lost masterpiece that bankrupted him and ended the career of his muse, Sabine Montrose - the past comes surging back. In his run-down hotel suite, the ravages of the past are waiting to be excavated: celluloid fragments and reels in desperate need of restoration, and Claudes memories of the woman who inspired and beguiled him.The Electric Hotel is a portrait of a man entranced by the magic of movie-making, a luminous romance and a whirlwind trip through the heady, endlessly inventive days of early cinema.

A sweeping work of historical fiction from the New York Timesabestselling author Dominic Smith, The Electric Hotel is a spellbinding story of art and love.For more than thirty years, Claude Ballard has been living at the Hollywood Knickerbocker Hotel. A French pioneer of silent films who started out as a concession agent for the Lumire brothers, the inventors of cinema, Claude now spends his days foraging for mushrooms in the hills of Los Angeles and taking photographs of runaways and the striplings along Sunset Boulevard. But when a film history student comes to interview Claude about The Electric Hotelathe lost masterpiece that bankrupted him and ended the career of his muse, Sabine Montroseathe past comes surging back. In his run-down hotel suite, the ravages of the past are waiting to be excavated: celluloid fragments in desperate need of restoration, as well as Claudeas memories of the woman who inspired and beguiled him.The Electric Hotel is a portrait of a man entranced by the magic of moviemaking, a luminous romance, and a whirlwind trip through early cinema. Sit back, relax, and enjoy the show.

In the 1600s Sara de Vos loses her young daughter suddenly to illness. In her grief, she secretly begins painting a dark landscape of a girl watching a group of ice skaters from the edge of a wood. In 1950s New York, Martijn de Groot has At the Edge of a Wood hanging above his bed. Though it is a dark, peculiar painting, he holds it dear and when it is stolen, he is bereft. In Brooklyn, struggling art student Ellie Shipley accepts a commission to paint an intricate forgery of the painting, not realising that her decision will come to haunt her successful academic career. Gorgeously written, brilliantly conceived and executed, filled with tension and revelation, The Last Painting of Sara de Vos is one of those rare books that stops time as you read it. This is a novel you will want to revisit for the sheer pleasure of watching a master at work.

Amsterdam, 1631: Sara de Vos becomes the first woman to be admitted as a master painter to the city s Guild of St. Luke. Though women do not paint landscapes (they are generally restricted to indoor subjects), a wintry outdoor scene haunts Sara: She cannot shake the image of a young girl from a nearby village, standing alone beside a silver birch at dusk, staring out at a group of skaters on the frozen river below. Defying the expectations of her time, she decides to paint it

En 1631, Sara de Vos se convierte en la primera mujer que es admitida como maestra pintora del Gremio de San Lucas, en Holanda. Tres siglos más tarde, A la orilla de un bosque, la escena invernal de una muchacha que mira a unos patinadores al atardecer, y el unico trabajo de Sara que ha sobrevivido, cuelga en la pared del dormitorio de una pareja que vive en Manhattan. Mientras tanto, Ellie, una estudiante australiana de historia del arte que lucha por mantenerse a flote en Nueva York, realiza una falsificacion del paisaje para un marchante de arte con mala fama. Medio siglo despues, Ellie, ahora comisaria de arte en Sidney, organiza una exposicion de mujeres pintoras del siglo de oro holandes. Ambas versiones de A la orilla de un bosque, la original y la falsificada, estan de camino a su museo y amenazan con arruinar su reputacion.

Ámsterdam, 1631. Sara de Vos se convierte en la primera mujer en ser admitida como maestra pintora de la Guilda de San Lucas. Aunque a las mujeres no se les permite pintar paisajes, después de un trágico suceso, la imagen de una niña en un bosque obsesiona a Sara. Desafiando las convenciones de su tiempo, decide pintarla.Nueva York, 1957. La unica obra de Sara de Vos que ha sobrevivido, En el linde de un bosque, pertenece al prestigioso abogado Marty de Groot. Este no puede sospechar que Ellie Shipley, una estudiante australiana de historia del arte, esta a punto de realizar una falsificacion para un marchante de arte con mala fama.Sidney, 2000.Ellie es una reconocida historiadora del arte, y esta organizando una exposicion dedicada a las pintoras del Siglo de Oro holandes. Cuando descubre que los dos cuadros de Sara de Vos, el original y su falsificacion, estan de camino al museo, la vida que ha logrado forjar con tanto esfuerzo amenaza con desplomarse.

Un misterioso cuadro del siglo XVII enlaza tres siglos, tres vidas y tres continentes.Ámsterdam, 1631. Sara de Vos, primera mujer admitida como maestra pintora de la Guilda de San Lucas, desafía la prohibicion impuesta a las mujeres y pinta un paisaje.Nueva York, 1957. La unica obra de Sara de Vos que ha sobrevivido pertenece al abogado Marty de Groot. Este no puede sospechar que Ellie Shipley, una estudiante australiana de historia del arte, lo ha falsificado.Sidney, 2000. Ellie esta organizando una exposicion dedicada a las pintoras del Siglo de Oro holandes. Cuando descubre que los dos cuadros de Sara de Vos, el original y su falsificacion, estan de camino al museo, la vida que ha logrado forjar con tanto esfuerzo amenaza con desplomarse.

Longlisted for the 2017 Walter Scott Prize for Historical FictionIn the 1600s Sara de Vos loses her young daughter suddenly to illness. In her grief, she secretly begins painting a dark landscape of a girl watching a group of ice skaters from the edge of a wood. In 1950s New York, Martijn de Groot has At the Edge of a Wood hanging above his bed. Though it is a dark, peculiar painting, he holds it dear and when it is stolen, he is bereft. In Brooklyn, struggling art student Ellie Shipley accepts a commission to paint an intricate forgery of the painting, not realising that her decision will come to haunt her successful academic career. Gorgeously written, brilliantly conceived and executed, filled with tension and revelation, The Last Painting of Sara de Vos is one of those rare books that stops time as you read it. This is a novel you will want to revisit for the sheer pleasure of watching a master at work.