Joan Fernandez is the author of the new novel Saving Vincent: A Novel of Jo van Gogh. She retired from a career of more than 30 years as a senior marketing executive.
Q: What inspired you to write a novel based on the life of Jo van Gogh, Vincent van Gogh's sister-in-law?
A: Jo’s story caught me like a fishhook. It was on a girlfriend trip to Amsterdam in 2016 that we visited the Van Gogh Museum and I first heard of Jo.
By following an audio tour of his works and life, after an hour I found myself engrossed in his story. By the end of the exhibition, the heartbreak of this brilliant artist totally captured me.
It was in that state that I spied an out-of-the-way display of Van Gogh family photos. There I saw a photo of Jo with a notation on how she was the one who spent her life convincing others of Van Gogh’s talent.
I remember staring at her black-and-white postage stamp of a picture, thinking: “If not for you, none of this would be here. If not for you, Vincent wouldn’t exist.”
I didn’t know it at the time, but it was the beginning of a mental shift that would ultimately bring about the decision to retire from my corporate job and become a full-time author about 18 months later.
Q: How did you research her life, and what did you learn that especially surprised you?
A: One of the best things I did was begin with primary research. I heard about a collection of letters Jo exchanged with her then fiancé Theo, Vincent’s brother and an art dealer. The out-of-print book is Brief Happiness, and I found it on a used-book site.
The 101 love letters are tender and vulnerable as the young couple share hopes and dreams for their future life together—sad, too, for I know that they’ll only be married 22 months before Theo dies.
I did discover through the letters that Jo was curious and keenly interested in what Theo thought about art. She asks him, “Keep writing to me about painting. . .I so much want to learn about it and up to now it was mainly because I found them pleasing to the eye.” And he does—other artists, techniques, selling, and his favorite subject: Vincent.
I realized that the letters were the beginning of an art apprenticeship for Jo. This would continue in person once they were married. It was training for the work she would do in the future.
Q: What did you see as the right balance between fiction and history as you wrote the book?
A: I call my novel “research-infused” for I stayed close to true events when it came to places, timeline, people, exhibitions, and art. If there was missing information, I filled in the gaps and I did deviate slightly from events if I felt it would improve the emotional arc of the story.
For this reason, I chose to invent a major character, Jo’s nemesis, a fictitious Parisian art dealer whom I had reflect the bias of the times, especially attitudes toward women in a male-dominated profession.
In real life Jo did not have a singular enemy, so I created a composite character of the opposition she experienced in promoting Vincent’s art.
Q: The author Jude Berman said of the book, “I found it tremendously gratifying to discover the vital role she played at a time when women were virtually excluded from the art world.” What do you think of that description?
A: While lower-class women could be shopkeepers or run boardinghouses, middle-class women were excluded from commerce in the early 20th century.
Art dealing was a competitive dogfight, a huge moneymaker for top-tier dealers, especially in Paris, which considered itself the pinnacle of artistic taste. Just as the Gold Rush or the more recent rush of app developers flooding Silicon Valley demonstrate, when there’s the hope of fortune, young people will race towards it.
Similarly, at the turn of the century, thousands of men traveled to Paris to become artists. Amongst this surplus, art dealers had tremendous political power to determine who and what art was acceptable. This was the headwind Theo van Gogh fought in attempting to show Vincent’s art.
Add prevalent beliefs of women as second-class citizens, weaker in mind and body then men, even having a smaller brain, it’s understandable that Jo was ignored.
Q: What are you working on now?
A: I hope to include a short story in an upcoming anthology about feisty women—a perfect follow-up to Jo! After that I’m toying with a novella of Jo and Theo’s love story or another biographical historical novel.
Q: Anything else we should know?
A: I’m grateful to be publishing Saving Vincent, A Novel of Jo van Gogh during a time when I believe it’s more important than ever to show the accomplishments of women from the past.
Women’s history, like Jo’s, illuminates systemic barriers. When antiquated gender roles hold women back, it stunts societal progress by ignoring resources of leadership and genius. A comprehensive understanding of history, one that includes women's contributions, creates a more accurate and complete view of our societal development.
Jo’s actions changed the art world and therefore, society as a whole. Ignoring women’s history perpetuates injustice. I believe with all my heart that embracing it is a fundamental step toward a truly just future for all.
Thank you so much for this opportunity, Deborah!
--Interview with Deborah Kalb
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