I Always Loved You by Robin Oliveira

Of Love and Art

I loved this historical fiction about four major players in the Impressionism movement in the late 1800s: Edouard Manet, Berthe Morisot, Edgar Degas and centering mainly on new-comer Mary Cassatt. This book allowed me to be a fly on the wall in the complicated relationship between Cassatt and Degas.  It answered the nagging question of if they were a couple or not, all the while meandering through the art world as well as family trauma. I also walked along with Manet in his relationship with his sister-in-law, Morisot and his devastating medical diagnosis.  This book offered great insight into the art world.  Oliveira conjures up the artists’ insecurities, their disappointments when the critics panned their work, as well as the triumphant jubilations when success finally reached them.  

A great read!

Here are some of my favorite pieces from them:

Left: Mary Cassatt’s sister Mlle Lydia Cassatt, 1880.  Center: Edgar Degas’s Green Dancer, 1879. Right: Edgar Degas’s Mary Cassatt at the Louvre, 1879.

Left: Edouard Manet’s portrait of Berthe Morisot with a Bouquet of Violets (on her jacket), 1872. Mid: On the Beach, 1873 with Manet and his wife Suzanne. Right: Berthe Morisot’s painting of her husband Eugene Manet at Isle of Wight, 1875.

Other Historical Fictions About Impressionists

Luncheon of the Boating Party by Susan Vreeland follows Renoir’s time while painting his eponymous masterpiece.

The Painted Girls by Cathy Marie Buchanan is the story of Degas’s Little Dancer Aged Fourteen statue as told through the model, Marie van Goethem and her sister’s story.

Depths of Glory by Irving Stone–A page-turning book about Camille Pissarro’s life.

Historical Fictions About Other Artists 

Frida by Barbara Mujica  about Frida Kahlo. 

I Am Madame X by Gioia Diliberto about John Singer Sargent's model, Virginie Gautreau, whose painting caused quite a stir. 

Stealing Mona Lisa by Carson Morton about the 1911 theft of the Mona Lisa painting. 

Annette