NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
A Wall Street Journal Top 10 Nonfiction Book of 2016
âAs compelling and entertaining as a detective novelâ (The Economist), the incredible true storyâpart art history and part mysteryâof a VelĂĄzquez 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 youngâtoo young to be kingâand yet also too young to be painted by the Flemish painter to whom the piece was attributed. Snare had found something incredibleâbut what?
His research brought him to Diego VelĂĄzquez, whose long-lost portrait of Prince Charles has eluded art experts for generations. VelĂĄzquez (1599â1660) was the official painter of the Madrid court, during the time the Spanish Empire teetered on the edge of collapse. When Prince Charles of Englandâa man wealthy enough to help turn Spainâs fortunesâproposed a marriage with a Spanish princess, he allowed just a few hours to sit for his portrait, and Snare believed only VelĂĄzquez could have been the artist of choice. But in making his theory public, Snare was ostracized and forced to choose, like VelĂĄzquez 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 VelĂĄzquez is a âbrilliantâ (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 Cummingâs book is âsumptuous...A gleaming work of someone at the peak of her craftâ (The New York Times).