Novel set in PROVENCE

20th February 2025

The Artist by Lucy Steeds, novel set in Provence.

It is 1920. Somewhere near Avignon lives an ageing artist called Tartuffe. Taking care of all his needs is his niece Ettie. Together they forge a simple life, her care of him allows him to paint. Every now and then his gallerist pops down from Paris to pick up his latest creation.

Tartuffe is a curmudgeonly man in his sixties, who has little time for social graces. He depends greatly on his niece, yet his attachment to her is careless and controlling, underpinned by his deep-seated fear that one day she will find her wings and leave. He will be abandoned, and, for him, history for him will repeat – his sister left their joint home for pastures new and returned in a coffin. Despite Tartuffe’s vile and capricious behaviour towards her, Ettie feels somehow bound to him.

Joseph arrives in their lives, a young English journalist with an arts background and he is on a mission to write an article or two about the great and famous artist, who lives secluded from life. He makes absolutely no headway with this behemoth of a man. Whilst he tries every ruse he can think of in order to cajole him to co-operate, he finds himself falling for Ettie but will she reciprocate?

Ettie, he discovers, has a yearning to create her own art but is knocked back by both Tartuffe and his gallerist. Women still did not have representation in the art world but Ettie by hook or by crook is determined to find her way. The visit of some familiar art collectors – “hunters of pleasure, gatherers of inspiration” – drop by to meet the man himself and after their visit, Ettie’s life is not quite the same.

This is a novel of art and food, and of art connoisseurship, posing the adroit question: why does one painter excel and garner the attention of buyers, whilst another painter, with equal talent, remains undiscovered? The novel entertainingly has a few sly twists and turns and is a very readable and evocative novel.

Tina for the TripFiction Team

Catch the author on Instagram: @LucySteeds 

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