NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
A Wall Street Journal Top 10 Nonfiction Book of 2016
“As compelling and entertaining as a detective novel” (The Economist), the incredible true story—part art history and part mystery—of a Velázquez portrait that went missing and the obsessed nineteenth-century bookseller determined to prove he had found it.
When John Snare, a nineteenth century provincial bookseller, traveled to a liquidation auction, he found a vivid portrait of King Charles I that defied any explanation. The Charles of the painting was young—too young to be king—and yet also too young to be painted by the Flemish painter to whom the piece was attributed. Snare had found something incredible—but what?
His research brought him to Diego Velázquez, whose long-lost portrait of Prince Charles has eluded art experts for generations. Velázquez (1599–1660) was the official painter of the Madrid court, during the time the Spanish Empire teetered on the edge of collapse. When Prince Charles of England—a man wealthy enough to help turn Spain’s fortunes—proposed a marriage with a Spanish princess, he allowed just a few hours to sit for his portrait, and Snare believed only Velázquez could have been the artist of choice. But in making his theory public, Snare was ostracized and forced to choose, like Velázquez himself, between art and family.
A thrilling investigation into the complex meaning of authenticity and the unshakable determination that drives both artists and collectors of their work, The Vanishing Velázquez is a “brilliant” (The Atlantic) tale of mystery and detection, of tragic mishaps and mistaken identities, of class, politics, snobbery, crime, and almost farcical accident that reveals how one historic masterpiece was crafted and lost, and how far one man would go to redeem it. Laura Cumming’s book is “sumptuous...A gleaming work of someone at the peak of her craft” (The New York Times).
Industry Reviews
"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 Velazquez and she has produced something of which her artist father, James Cumming, would be more than proud."-- "Honor Clerk, The Spectator"
"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. Sometimes, dual biographies can be a contrivance, but here the two stories enhance each other. Like Donna Tartt's novel The Goldfinch, this is about the particular forms of obsession that only art can generate. Cumming uses Snare's story as a way to explore the extraordinary personal connection Velazquez's art creates with its audience... This enthralling book is about what it means to create art so luminous that others would fight just to get close to it."-- "Bee Wilson, The Sunday Times"
"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 lover... Then there's the detective story, which gusts the plot along at a cracking pace... Cumming pulls us so deeply into the painter's world that it seems as if we can feel the breath of his subjects on our cheeks, and see the sheeny sweat on their brows... Cumming brings these worlds together with exactly the kind of ease that made Velazquez the subject of such envy in his own time, indeed in all times... In the same way, you put down The Vanishing Velazquez not quite sure how Cumming has been able to bring off this particular magic trick, but happy and grateful that she has."-- "Kathryn Hughes, The Guardian"
"Cumming writes an absorbing, quick-paced book . . . similar to Erik Larson's The Devil in the White City from the standpoint that the author transforms a little-known subject into one that is endlessly entertaining."-- "BookBrowse"
"The Vanishing Velazquez 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, author of Brooklyn and Nora Webster
