Sign-In
Cart
Portrait in Red: A Paris Obsession
Hardcover
Biographies GeneralTravel WritingFrance
Publisher Price: $35.00
ISBN13: 9781597146494
Publisher: Heyday Books
Published: Nov 5 2024
Pages: 320
Weight: 1.15
Height: 1.18 Width: 5.59 Depth: 8.58
Language: English
The quest to uncover the history of a mysterious painting, and a joyous exploration of art in the twentieth century and beyond.
While wandering the streets of Paris in 2015, L. John Harris finds an abandoned, unfinished, and strangely compelling painting. The subject: a girl wearing a bright-red head covering, fixing her viewer with a foreboding gaze. The painting bears no signature, only the date: January 12, 1935. Harris, a journalist and illustrator, embarks on a multi-year quest to uncover the story behind this painting. His sleuthing has given birth to Portrait in Red, a wide-ranging exploration of art and its enduring mysteries.
With wit and a contagious enthusiasm, Harris traces unexpected connections between Paris on the eve of World War II, his bohemian life in the San Francisco Bay Area, the aura of original paintings, the magic of found objects, and the aesthetics of a perfect croque monsieur. Portrait in Red will delight lovers of Edmund de Waal's The Hare with Amber Eyes or Michael Finkel's The Art Thief. By turns heartbreaking and laugh-out-loud funny, it is an existential detective story, set among world tragedies, art-historical epiphanies, and comic hijinks.
Also in
Biographies General
The Happiness Project: Or, Why I Spent a Year Trying to Sing in the Morning, Clean My Closets, Fight Right, Read Aristotle and Generally Have
Rubin, Gretchen
Paperback
Bar Yarns and Manic-Depressive Mixtapes: Jim Walsh on Music from Minneapolis to the Outer Limits
Walsh, Jim
Hardcover
Virus Hunter: Thirty Years of Battling Hot Viruses Around the World
Olshaker, Mark
Peters, C. J.
Paperback
Through No Fault of My Own: A Girl's Diary of Life on Summit Avenue in the Jazz Age
Irvine, Coco
Paperback
From Here to the Great Unknown: Oprah's Book Club: A Memoir
Presley, Lisa Marie
Keough, Riley
Hardcover
A Walk in the Park: The True Story of a Spectacular Misadventure in the Grand Canyon
Fedarko, Kevin
Hardcover
Covet the Comeback: How a Son of Greek Immigrants Found Success, Lost Everything, Then Built a Fashion Empire
Garkinos, Christos
Paperback
Undercover Junkie: Chasing Highs, Confronting Killers, and Unraveling in the Chaos
Cartwright, Brent
Hardcover
The 38 Letters from J.D. Rockefeller to his son: Perspectives, Ideology, and Wisdom
Rockefeller, J. D.
Paperback
Something Lost, Something Gained: Reflections on Life, Love, and Liberty
Clinton, Hillary Rodham
Hardcover
We Will Be Jaguars (Reese's Book Club Pick): A Memoir of My People
Anderson, Mitch
Nenquimo, Nemonte
Hardcover
I Am Maria: My Reflections and Poems on Heartbreak, Healing, and Finding Your Way Home
Shriver, Maria
Hardcover
The Elements of Marie Curie: How the Glow of Radium Lit a Path for Women in Science
Sobel, Dava
Hardcover
Entangled Life: How Fungi Make Our Worlds, Change Our Minds & Shape Our Futures
Sheldrake, Merlin
Paperback
Undercover Junkie: Chasing Highs, Confronting Killers, and Unraveling in the Chaos
Cartwright, Brent
Paperback
Jane Austen's Bookshelf: A Rare Book Collector's Quest to Find the Women Writers Who Shaped a Legend
Romney, Rebecca
Hardcover
Kingmaker: Pamela Harriman's Astonishing Life of Power, Seduction, and Intrigue
Purnell, Sonia
Hardcover
When the Going Was Good: An Editor's Adventures During the Last Golden Age of Magazines
Carter, Graydon
Hardcover
The Devil at His Elbow: Alex Murdaugh and the Fall of a Southern Dynasty
Bauerlein, Valerie
Hardcover
Empire of the Summer Moon: Quanah Parker and the Rise and Fall of the Comanches, the Most Powerful Indian Tribe in American History
Gwynne, S. C.
Paperback
True Gretch: What I've Learned about Life, Leadership, and Everything in Between
Whitmer, Gretchen
Hardcover
What in the World?!: A Southern Woman's Guide to Laughing at Life's Unexpected Curveballs and Beautiful Blessings
Morgan, Leanne
Hardcover
Dinner for Vampires: Life on a Cult TV Show (While Also in an Actual Cult!)
Lenz, Bethany Joy
Hardcover
Voice for the Voiceless: Over Seven Decades of Struggle with China for My Land and My People
Lama, Dalai
Hardcover
Night Magic: Adventures Among Glowworms, Moon Gardens, and Other Marvels of the Dark
Henion, Leigh Ann
Hardcover
Medicine River: A Story of Survival and the Legacy of Indian Boarding Schools
Pember, Mary Annette
Hardcover
Trail of the Lost: The Relentless Search to Bring Home the Missing Hikers of the Pacific Crest Trail
Lankford, Andrea
Paperback
Tiny Beautiful Things (10th Anniversary Edition): Reese's Book Club: Advice from Dear Sugar
Strayed, Cheryl
Paperback
The Survivor: How I Made It Through Six Concentration Camps and Became a Nazi Hunter
Lewkowicz, Josef
Hardcover