The Art Forger

Bella Gardner again writes to her niece. She celebrates that they will be reunited in six weeks and warns Amelia not to read the gossip columns about her. She remarks further on her meetings with Degas, describing him as a charming and eccentric man living in a messy studio despite being a successful artist. She mourns that Degas appears to be embracing Impressionism, as she prefers the more classical style of his earlier work.

Claire sees After the Bath in a new light as she begins to notice extensive discrepancies between the painting and Degas’ actual style. She is ashamed of herself for believing the forgery, and muses about how often experts are tricked into seeing what they want to see. She immediately calls Markel and arranges a meeting for that night, under the guise of needing an oven to dry the painting so the paint will seem older than it actually is. She wonders if she should mention her discovery but worries that Markel will cancel her contract if she mentions that After the Bath is a fake. She wonders if he knows. At dinner, Claire tries to touch on the idea of the painting being a fake, but does not bring it up directly. Markel recoils at the suggestion; he appears to be convinced that the painting is real.

Claire begins preparing the canvas on which she will paint the new After the Bath. She removes the paint in layers down to the original sizing, then begins to sketch out the figures from After the Bath. Markel visits to see her progress as well as the gigantic new oven he has had delivered to her studio. He jokes that she can start a cupcake business if her art career doesn’t work out. She expresses anxiety about housing the stolen painting in her studio and wonders if she should hold off on spending the money. Markel reassures her by saying that if they get caught, they will say that After the Bath is a forgery and that she was only commissioned to do a legal reproduction. Claire, somewhat taken aback by this comment, asks him if he is saying the painting is fake. He assures her that it is not.

Three years earlier, Claire is dealing the fallout of both 4D’s success and Issac’s sudden departure from her life. She is disgusted when she finds that MoMA has purchased the painting and is showing it as part of their permanent collection. Though curator Karen previously expressed interest in her work, Claire cannot get her to even look at her slides. After being turned down in person while trying to drop off the slides, she calls Issac from a payphone so he will not ignore her. She tells him that she wants him to admit that 4D is her painting. He refuses.

While Claire works on the underpainting for her After the Bath copy, she thinks further about the provenance of the forgery now sitting in her studio. Since the painting seems to be the correct age, she believes that Bella and Degas may have had a hand in the deception. At the same time, she believes that the real painting may have been swapped for the fake at any point on its route between Paris and Boston. Claire attempts to find information about Belle and Degas’ relationship on the internet, but she comes up short. She visits Rik, who is revealed to work at the Gardner Museum. She tells him that she is hoping to find out more about Belle’s time in Paris for a book she is writing; in particular, she wants to know if there is anything known about her relationship with Degas. Rik says that most of Belle’s personal correspondence was destroyed after her death, but he gives Claire the name of a living relative in Boston who may have some information. He also promises to follow any leads he finds on his upcoming visit to Paris.

Two years after the previous letters, Belle again writes to her niece Amelia. She is back in Paris and again enthralled with Degas. She writes that she trusts her niece to keep her secrets, and then divulges a scandalous story. Degas has offered to give her a painting free of charge, in the classical style that she prefers, if only she will pose nude for him. Belle is shocked and intrigued by this idea, but ultimately puts on an offended tone and tells Degas that it is impossible because she is a married woman.

Claire visits Sandra Stoneham, Bella Gardner’s only living relative. Although Rik has described her as a “pain in the ass,” Claire finds Sandra to be a charming woman in her 80s with an impressive Modern art collection. Sandra talks badly about the Gardner Museum, claiming that it does not respect her great aunt’s legacy. Claire is disappointed when Sandra eventually realizes who she is, but is reassured when Sandra brushes off the Issac scandal, saying that the art world is complicated. Claire has visited Sandra in hopes of gaining information about Bella’s relationship with Degas. She continues to use the cover of book research. Sandra reports that regrettably, most of the things related to Bella in her home were taken when her great aunt died. Later, Claire attends her juvenile detention art class. Near the end of the class, one of the boys is discovered with drugs and claims that Claire has been providing them. She finds herself isolated in a cell and investigated and resents being treated like a criminal.

Three years earlier, Claire sees a picture of Issac with a young, pretty woman in the newspaper. She is enraged and decides to come clean about the true origin of 4D. She intercepts Karen at MoMA and tells the curator that she was the true painter. Karen is skeptical but gives Claire the opportunity to recreate 4D under strict guidelines to test the veracity of her claim.

Back in the present, Claire is being held while the juvenile detention center investigates the drug dealing claims. When she is finally released, it becomes clear that they never really suspected her but had to go through official procedures. She rushes home to a meeting with Markel, who is impressed by the progress of her work and admires her attention detail, remarking that he knew he made the right choice. Near the end of the meeting, the tone turns flirtatious, but Claire rejects Markel’s advances. She suggests that maybe something can happen later, after her show at his gallery.

Claire finishes her version of After the Bath. During the later stages of painting, she is plagued by recurring dreams of Issac, Belle, Degas, Markel, and other stressful influences in her life. She keeps steady by focusing on the work of famous forgers from the past, learning about their techniques and employing them to create a convincing copy of the supposed Degas painting. When Markel visits to see the final result, he is unable to tell the two paintings apart. Claire is eager for them to leave her studio; she has learned that the oven that she has been using during the forgery is capable of creating otherworldly colors, and she is excited to employ this technique in her own painting.

Markel invites Claire to his home for dinner to celebrate the completion of After the Bath. She is most excited to view his art collection, which is as extensive and well-curated as she expected. He has prepared gourmet mac and cheese because she previously said that the dish (referring to the ultra-processed, packaged version) was the only thing she could cook and that she hoped he would make something better. While touring the house, he mentions that he has children, and Claire is somewhat disturbed that she didn’t already know this, although she can’t identify why since the pair are not close personally. Against Claire’s better judgement, they end the night with passionate sex, all while discussing what will happen with the two copies of the Degas painting. When leaving his house, she sees him looking longingly out the window, and rings the bell to be let back in.

This is another flashback chapter. Claire has agreed to paint another rendition of 4D under the strict watch of an art historian named Beatrice. She is only allowed to paint at times that Beatrice can watch, so the process takes longer than she had hoped. Karen has told her that she doesn’t have to paint an exact replica of 4D, but the painting must clearly be in the same style, part of the same series. Beatrice is professional and somewhat cold for most of the painting process, but she congratulates Claire once she finishes. It will take six weeks for a committee to decide whether she or Issac painted 4D.