The Art Forger

Claire sits in her studio after Markel’s departure, pondering his words. She is disgusted at the idea of forgery, but she appreciates his recognition of her potential talent in the field. Later, Claire meets with some friends at Jake’s, a local bar where she knows everyone will ask about her meeting. Her longtime friend Rik is the first to ask about the meeting with Markel. Claire says that he appreciated her work but that it didn’t really go anywhere. There are several people around, and she knows that their lawyer friend, Mike, would be upset that she didn’t immediately turn down the offer of illegal work. They are joined by others including Crystal Mack, another local artist whom Claire seems to disdain. By the end of the night, only Claire and Rik remain at the bar, and Claire opens up more about her anxiety over finding work. She mentions that she is a finalist in a prestigious art competition and that she hopes to win and gain exposure. Rik continues to lightly pry for information about Markel’s visit, and near the end of the conversation, he asks if it has something to do with a man named Issac. Claire recoils at this suggestion and becomes upset, saying that Issac is dead.

This chapter occurs three years before the opening events of the book. Claire is at Issac’s studio. She describes them as a completely inappropriate romantic couple; Issac is around 20 years her senior and her former teacher. Now, he is depressed and despondent about his artistic vision, and she hopes to inspire him. He is supposed to have a work prepared for a major MoMA (Museum of Modern Art) exhibition of contemporary artists, but he refuses to try any of her ideas. Frustrated, Claire offers to start the painting for him. Over the following week, she continues to work on the painting, occasionally with instruction from Issac and sometimes alone while he sleeps. When she finishes the painting, he remarks that it looks more like her work than his, but he signs his name on it anyway.

Claire wakes in the middle of the night from a nightmare about the Markel G gallery. She decides to check her email and finds that the winners of the art contest she entered have been announced. With horror, she discovers that Crystal Mack is the winner. She describes Crystal’s work as derivative, mass market “over the couch” art, purchased primarily by rich suburbanites with no taste. The next day, still annoyed, Claire teaches art class at a local juvenile detention center. She has asked the boys to paint something they miss from the world outside the jail. Some of them have chosen to paint things like beer cans and heroin, which saddens Claire. When the boy painting beer cans asks for silver paint to make his art more realistic, she laments that it isn’t in the budget. She imagines the things she could buy if she took the $50,000 that Markel promised her.

Claire returns to her studio and calls Markel. He promises that although his plan isn’t legal, it is the right thing to do and will help a lot of people. She hesitantly agrees. Several days later, a large, carefully packed crate arrives at her studio. She doesn’t know what it contains but assumes it must be a piece of art for her to copy. When Markel visits the studio to bring her the first payment, he is pleased to see she has already started opening the crate. The crate contains two paintings. The first to emerge is a minor work by a second-tier military artist, which does not leave Claire impressed, although she feels some regret when Markel tells her that the work is to be destroyed. She eagerly starts to unwrap the second painting, which Markel says is by Edgar Degas, her favorite painter to copy. She expects a minor work and is shocked when the bubble wrap falls away to reveal After the Bath, one of Degas’s most renowned paintings. Years earlier, this very painting was stolen as part of an infamous heist at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum. It has not been seen in public since.

This chapter shows an 1886 letter from Isabella Stewart Gardner, the founder of the eponymous Boston museum. She writes to her niece, Amelia, from Paris. She is excited to be in the city after spending time in dreary London. The previous night, she attended a party with several famous artists and intellectuals, including the novelist Henry James and the painters James Whistler, John Singer Sargent, and Edgar Degas, whom she has never previously met. Isabella, dressed in an elegant off the shoulder gown, spends the night flirting with Degas, listening to him talk about the “Impressionists,” a new group of artists who are all the rage. He invites her to attend a horse race with him and to visit him in his studio. Isabella hopes to commission art from the men at the dinner party, and although she doesn’t make any solid arrangements, she receives verbal confirmation from all three that they would be interested in painting for her.

Claire and Markel admire the Degas painting, and he elaborates about his plan. Claire pressures him to say where he got the painting. He claims not to know anything about the seller; he acquired the painting through a series of anonymous contacts for a shadowy seller who hoped Markel would know a potential buyer. He tells Claire that he has someone in mind, but that person will not receive the original Degas painting. Instead, Claire will create a believable reproduction for transfer to the buyer. When the buyer is satisfied, Markel will give the original back to the Gardner Museum. Markel seems very sure of his plan; he is confident that even if the black-market buyer suspects that the painting is a forgery, they will have no way to come forward without exposing their own crimes. Markel will be able to donate the original back to the museum without anyone knowing he was involved. Claire is skeptical about how straightforwardly Markel describes the plan, and she assumes he must be leaving out key details that make it riskier than it sounds.

Claire visits the Gardner Museum with her friend, Rik. She has been there many times before and has sketches she made of After the Bath when she was a child, before the painting was stolen. Before meeting Rik for lunch, Claire gazes at the empty frame where the painting once hung. She admires the museum’s choice to keep the empty frames as a reminder of the crime. The entire museum is exactly as Isabella Stewart Gardner left it. The eclectic mansion was once Isabella’s home, and she always intended to leave it to the public after her death. When Rik arrives, Claire asks him about the heist. He speculates that it was done by European thieves due to the style of the robbery; the paintings are likely being used as collateral on the black market, as they would be difficult to sell given their provenance. Claire can barely resist mentioning that she has one of the paintings at her own studio.

Three years prior, Claire and Issac meet with Markel and Karen Sinsheimer, a curator from MoMA. They are there to judge whether Isaac’s latest painting is worthy of inclusion in the upcoming exhibition. They are unaware that Claire actually painted the work, not Issac. Although the artists are nervous at first, Markel and Karen begin to gush over the painting, calling it Issac’s best work yet. They ask about his inspiration, and he begins to repeat the exact words about the nature of time that Claire told him a week before when trying to inspire him. He mentions that Claire played a big part in inspiring the painting, which prompts Karen to ask to see Claire’s work. Karen and Markel depart, and Claire and Issac begin to cuddle while she ponders the idea that her painting will now be marketed as Isaac’s masterpiece.

Claire opens several bank accounts, something Markel asked her to do to help obscure the money trail for the forged painting. Feeling wealthy, she visits Al’s, a local art store owned by a motherly woman named Alvina. Claire pays off her outstanding balance at the shop, then picks up some supplies to strip the old canvas and begin her reproduction. She then visits the Museum of Fine Art, where she takes close-up photographs of all the Degas paintings displayed there. A guard begins following her around after she accidentally trips an alarm. At first Claire is offended to be seen as a potential threat, but she then realizes she is indeed working on a criminal task.

Since receiving the Degas painting, Claire has suspected that After the Bath itself may be a forgery. She works her way through a number of authenticity tests, such as exposing the paint to alcohol to see if it has truly been drying for almost 200 years. She compares the visible brushstrokes to those seen in her photos from the MFA. The painting shows no clear evidence of being a fake, but Claire can’t remove the thought from her mind. Frustrated, she heads to Jake’s, where her friends Rik and Danielle have news about Crystal Mack making another big sale. Claire successfully turns the conversation to Isabella Gardner (whom most call Belle) after hearing that Rik is traveling to Paris, Belle’s second favorite city. They discuss the art collector’s eccentric lifestyle.

Three years prior, Claire is forced to skip the opening of Issac’s MoMA show to attend a class. After the opening, her painting, 4D, rockets to international fame, and Issac begins to believe the lie that he painted it. This clearly disturbs him, and he begins to sink into depression. Unwilling to confront what has happened, he suddenly breaks up with Claire. Furious, she tells him to leave the apartment and shoves Orange Nude, his painting of her, into his arms.