The Portrait

Iain Pears

This is probably the most peculiar book I've read all year, maybe in any year, yet an ultimately satisfying effort. It is unlike any Pears I have read previously.

Henry MacApline is an artist who has taken a commission to do a portrait for an art critic that has been a mentor, promoter, patron and backstabber.

MacAlpine had an opportunity to be great, but missed close. Part of the reason he ultimately failed to make his mark on the art world was a critic that set him up during a gallery showing where his art was implied to be outdated by when the critic did the review of the opening - whose portrait he has maneuvered himself into the position to paint.

We learn this as an extended one sided conversation during the several days taken to paint the portrait. The “conversation” ranges far and wide, from the first meeting, reviews that were done, meals enjoyed, and not, together, and the women in their lives. The conversation is largely introspective, giving way in the end to unresolved anger at the impact on a lengthy career and on the careers of close friends that were destroyed by the critic.

I won't give away the result, but about ¾ of the way into the book there is a foreshadowing of what is to come, which leads to a delicious ending. A nice, quick summer read, well worth the effort.