Q&A with B.A. Shapiro

 

 

B.A. Shapiro is the author of the new novel The Lost Masterpiece. Her other books include The Art Forger. She lives in Boston and in Naples, Florida. 

 

Q: What inspired you to write The Lost Masterpiece, and why did you decide to focus on the artists Berthe Morisot (1841-1895) and Edouard Manet (1832-1883)?

 

A: I discovered Berthe while doing research for a previous novel, The Art Forger, and she’s been running around in my brain for over a decade.

 

She popped up when I was searching for the subject of my next book, and when I saw her fabulous paintings and learned she was an important Impressionist who had been forgotten because she was a woman, I was hooked. And then when I learned about Berthe and Manet being in love, I began to write.

 

Q: How did you create your modern-day character Tamara?

 

A: I wanted Berthe’s story to be intertwined with a contemporary one, and I wanted the two protagonists to be similar but different because they were living in different eras, exploring how their lives and choices were defined by how women were viewed—and controlled—by the society they lived in.

 

I combined this with some of my own struggles in a male-dominated profession, and voila, Tamara emerged. 

 

Q: The writer Caroline Leavitt said of the book, “Morisot haunts both a stolen masterwork painting and its modern day owner, crafting a story of love, scandal and revenge, into a triumphant page turner that’s part art history, part ghost story and totally original.” What do you think of that description?

 

A: How can I not love it? Caroline highlighted many of the issues I was struggling to fit together as I wrote The Lost Masterpiece. The woman knows how to turn a phrase.

 

Q: How did you research the book, and what did you learn that especially surprised you?

 

A: I’m an academic by training and love to dig into learning about things I don’t know. Books, articles, interviews, site visits—oh, how difficult it was to have to spend time in Paris—as well as websites, blogs and yes, ChatGPT, although the latter very carefully.

 

Before I began, I had no idea Berthe and Manet were in love, nor did I know that female artists in late 19th century Paris were only “allowed” to paint women, children, and men they were related to—if they were “allowed” to paint at all. I was both horrified and fascinated by the strict and restrictive norms of the time.

 

Q: What are you working on now?

 

A: I’m working on a novel about another unsung female talent who never received her due.

 

Based on a real character, Misia Sert, who lived in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, The Many Faces of Misia explores this remarkable woman who was a muse to famous artists, musicians, writers and choreographers, none of whom would have risen to the heights they attained without her advice and patronage.

 

Renoir, Toulouse-Lautrec, Proust, Zola, Diaghilev, Fauré, even Coco Chanel, to name a few. And all of this wrapped around two mysterious deaths, which also actually occurred.

 

--Interview with Deborah Kalb. Here's a previous Q&A with B.A. Shapiro.