Q&A with Jonathan Santlofer

 

 

 

Jonathan Santlofer is the author of the new novel The Lost Van Gogh. It's a sequel to his novel The Last Mona Lisa. He is also an artist and educator.

 

Q: Why did you decide to write a sequel to The Last Mona Lisa, and do you think your characters have changed at all from one book to the next?

 

A: The idea for a second book came to me as I was finishing The Last Mona Lisa. I wasn’t ready to let the characters go. I’d grown attached to them, knew I had more to say about them, and they had more to say. Plus, I had an idea about a Van Gogh self-portrait that I thought could work.

 

I think Luke and Alex have grown up a lot since the first book. They’re in a committed relationship now and trying to make it work though it’s not always easy. There is some lingering mistrust between them, as well as love.

 

As for Smith, he finds someone special at the end of The Lost Van Gogh, and I think he deserves happiness!

 

For me, as a writer and their creator, it’s fun to watch the characters develop and change and I don’t always feel in control of that. I set the scenes, but how the characters act often surprises me.

 

Q: How did you research this novel, and what did you learn that particularly surprised you?

 

A: I read a lot and traveled a lot, which I always do. I needed to see where Van Gogh had spent his life. So, I went to Amsterdam and Paris and finally to Auvers-sur-Oise, a small town north of Paris where Van Gogh spent his last 70 days and where he died.

 

I also knew I wanted to write something about the retribution of stolen art, a topic very much in the news today, and one with serious moral implications. I read a dozen books on Nazi art looting and followed several legal cases of heirs suing to get stolen family art returned.

 

The most shocking thing I learned is that the buying and selling of Nazi-looted art is still going on today, almost 80 years after the end of the war, and it inspired the major mystery in the novel.

 

Other surprises came as I investigated Van Gogh’s life. We know a lot about him from his letters (he wrote over 2,000), but there are still gaps, times when he was in an asylum or when he had blackouts.

 

And there is a lot of mystery surrounding the last day of his life and his death, something Alex discovers and describes to Luke near the end of the book, a theory based on my research about what might have happened to Vincent on that hot July day in 1890 (and something I will not spoil here).

 

It is always interesting and surprising when the subjects of my research unexpectedly come together. While I was in Amsterdam, I met and got to know a woman whose grandfather had owned Van Gogh’s Portrait of Dr. Gachet, a painting stolen by the Nazis, and one she has been trying to get back for 20 years. It was as if fate had stepped in and handed me the two poles of my story at once: Van Gogh and Nazi-looted art.

 

Q: How does your own background as an artist affect your writing about art?

 

A: Of course I love art, and have spent my life deeply immersed in it. I went to art school and was trained as an artist, so I tend to see the world in images. I always try to write as visually as possible, so the reader can see what’s happening.

 

Art school is very demanding and disciplined, and that discipline carried over into being a writer. No one forces you to be an artist or a writer, so if you want to do either, you’d better be prepared to work hard and often without feedback or recognition. I learned that as an artist and it’s the same for writers.

 

Q: The writer Joseph Finder said of the book, “The Last Van Gogh is a kaleidoscope — a globetrotting thriller, a lesson in art history, a reminder of a crime against humanity that will never be expunged, but most of all a tremendously entertaining read.” What do you think of that description?

 

A: I think Joe sums it up beautifully and I thank him for that. The novel takes the reader on a physical (and for the characters often dangerous) journey from New York to Amsterdam, to Paris, and Auvers-sur-Oise, France.

 

In dealing with the lost Van Gogh self-portrait, a good deal of Van Gogh’s history, his art and his life, are revealed. There is also the exploration of Nazi art-looting, not only its history but the way stolen art continues to be sold today.

 

I set out to write a contemporary thriller that mixed fact and fiction, that went back and forth in time, one that was an exciting page-turner while it shined a light on one of history’s darkest eras.

 

Q: What are you working on now? Will there be more books in the series?

 

A: I’m working on more than one book, which is unusual for me. But yes, a third Luke book is in the works, and I’m excited about that.

 

Q: Anything else we should know?

 

A: A few exciting things are brewing but it’s too early to talk about them. Thank you, Deborah!

 

--Interview with Deborah Kalb. Here's a previous Q&A with Jonathan Santlofer.