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The Vanishing Man: In Pursuit of Velazquez

Laura Cumming

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Description for The Vanishing Man: In Pursuit of Velazquez Paperback. In 1845, a Reading bookseller named John Snare came across the dirt-blackened portrait of a prince at a country house auction. Suspecting that it might be a long-lost Velazquez, he bought the picture and set out to discover its strange history - a quest that led from fame to ruin and exile. This book pays homage to the Spanish master Velazquez. Num Pages: 320 pages. BIC Classification: AFC; BGF. Category: (G) General (US: Trade). Dimension: 131 x 239 x 24. Weight in Grams: 282.
WINNER OF THE JAMES TAIT BLACK BIOGRAPHY PRIZE SHORTLISTED FOR THE RATHBONES FOLIO PRIZE LONGLISTED FOR THE BAILLIE GIFFORD PRIZE FOR NON-FICTION Selected as a Book of the Year in the Herald In 1845, a Reading bookseller named John Snare came across the dirt-blackened portrait of a prince at a country house auction. Suspecting that it might be a long-lost Velazquez, he bought the picture and set out to discover its strange history - a quest that led from fame to ruin and exile. Fusing detection and ... Read more

Product Details

Format

Paperback

Publication date

2017

Publisher

Vintage Publishing

Condition

New

Number of Pages

320

Place of Publication

London, United Kingdom

ISBN

9780099587040

SKU

9780099587040

Shipping Time

Usually ships in 2 to 4 working days

Ref

99-2

About Laura Cumming

Laura Cumming has been art critic of the Observer since 1999. Previously, she was a presenter of Nightwaves on Radio 3, arts producer for the BBC World Service and arts editor of the New Statesman. Her previous book, A Face to the World: On Self-Portraits, and the accompanying BBC Four documentary, received widespread critical acclaim.

Reviews for The Vanishing Man: In Pursuit of Velazquez

The Vanishing Man is a riveting detective story and a brilliant reconstruction of an art controversy, but it is also a homage to the art of Velazquez, written by a critic who remains spellbound by his genius, as readers will be spellbound by this book
Colm Toibin Sumptuous...A gleaming work of someone at the peak of her ... Read morecraft
New York Times
An extraordinary story ... This terrific book is many things, a study in obsession, a paean of praise to an artist of genius, a detective story and, for the author, an exorcism of grief. Writing like Helen Macdonald in H is for Hawk, in the wake of the death of her father, Cumming pours heart and soul in The Vanishing Man and she has produced something of which her artist father, James Cumming, would be more than proud
Spectator
Laura Cumming twists several genres around her supple fingers in order to tell the extraordinary story of how Snare fell under the spell of a painting and sacrificed everything - prosperity, reputation, a respectable death surrounded by loving family - so that he might live with it like a love ... The detective story [...] gusts the plot along at a cracking pace... You put down The Vanishing Man not quite sure how Cumming has been able to bring off this particular magic trick, but happy and grateful that she has.
Guardian
In this superb and original book, Cumming interweaves the gripping story of Snare with that of Diego Velazquez himself, painting at the court in Madrid in the 17th century.. Like Donna Tartt's novel The Goldfinch, this is about the particular forms of obsession that only art can generate... This enthralling book is about what it means to create art so luminous that others would fight just to get close to it
Sunday Times
This is an absorbing dual biography inspired by the author's passion for Velazquez... Cumming brings her subject alive and writes with empathy and insight
Tatler
A real-life detective story involving an Old Master portrait of an ill-fated English king and an art obsession that would lead to the ruin of one of the book's two mysterious protagonists: one a humble 19th-century printer and bookseller from Reading, John Snare; the other the great 17th-century Spanish court painter named in the title ... Interwoven into the narrative of Snare's tribulations, and of beautifully compelling accounts of Velazquez's paintings, are moving snippets of biography that reveal Cumming's own relationship to the great Spanish master
Independent
Simultaneously art historian and detective, Cumming skilfully weaves together the lives not only of Velazquez and Snare, but also of the ill-fated king and of the man who unknowingly sparked her interest in the Spanish artist - her late father, the painter James Cumming.
Anna Godfrey
Financial Times
Ingenious... intriguing... [Cumming] subtly interweaves the two narratives - that of Snare and that of Velazquez - so that they illuminate each other in surprising ways.
Mark Hudson
Daily Telegraph
The painter, writes Cumming, allowed every sitter 'his privacy, his secrecy, his full mystery' even when revealing them for all to see and in this accomplished and touching book she allows her two subjects theirs
Michael Prodger
Evening Standard
The compelling tale of enigmatic Spanish painter Velazquez - and the obsessive fan who bought himself a lifetime of misery...
Mail on Sunday
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The Vanishing Man: In Pursuit of Velazquez

Laura Cumming

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