Fiona Davis: The Masterpiece, Dutton, (Penguin Random House USA), 9781524742973, paperback

(German Edition: Wege ihrer Sehnsucht, 19. September 2019, Goldmann, Paperback

 

Summer time for me is often a time for light hearted reading. What attracted me to Fiona Davis “The Masterpiece” was her being inspired by two facts for this novel:  the artist Helen Dryden who was one of the most well paid female illustrators and industrial designers in 1920 and 30ties New York when female artist hardly had any recognition and the Supreme Court’s ruling to declare the Grand Central Terminal in New York a landmark saving it from developers. I had no idea there had actually been a  famous art school housed in the terminal, the Grand Central School of Art, which was founded by painters John Singer Sargent, Walter Leighton Clark and Edmund Greacen.

Davis’s novel “The Masterpiece” has two story lines: 1920ties and 1930 New York and 1974 with two strong female characters at its heart.   Clara Darden whose character is based on Helen Dryden using fictional liberties, is a teacher for illustrations at the Grand Central School of Art when magazines only used illustrators  before the event of photography. She is determined to make her way as a serious artist even if it means having no money and  going to bed hungry at night. Through a stroke of luck she meets Oliver whose admiration and advances she happily gives into. His family connections help her breaking out into the New York art world landing her a job as a highly paid illustrator at Vogue.  Clara’s artistic friendship with Levon Zakarian, a successful painter and fellow teacher at the art school, who originally started out being rival slowly turns into something more intimate and she finds herself being torn between two men.  But when the Great Depression of the 1929 hits, everyone’s life is tragically altered.

In 1974 Virginia Clay, a new divorcee, is trying to find her bearings after a severe illness and being traded in for a less flawed woman by her husband.    Never having had to work as a lawyer’s wife she finds the only job she can land is at the information booth of the Grand Central Station terminal which barely covers supporting herself and her teenage daughter Ruby. By sheer accident she discovers the closed off section of the former art school and is fascinated by a stunning watercolor she finds which has obviously been left behind.  Trying to find out more about the art school and  who the artist in question gives her a new purpose in life. When she and her coworkers learn that the fading beauty of what  once was a  glorious Grand Central station has brought developers on the plan who are eager to tear down the building for their own gain, Virginia gets involved to save this historic landmark.

I had great fun reading Fiona Davis' well-crafted “The Masterpiece” which will appeal to readers who are interested in historical fiction set in the world of art with a light mystery as a backdrop.