The Lost Masterpiece blends a contemporary story with a bit of history about the birth of French Impressionism. In the present, Tamara inherits a Manet painting Party on the Seine, featuring Berthe Morisot as the principal figure, a painting looted from its French owners by the Nazis. With this inheritance, Tamara discovers a family history she never knew—and is a direct descendant of painter Berthe Morisot. Tamara installs this multi-million dollar painting in her apartment and soon falls under its spell. She begins to doubt her sanity when Berthe’s image in the painting begins to morph. Conflict arises at the Manet Foundation in Paris also claims the painting.
The novel is told in multiple points of view and timelines, Tamara in the present and her distant relatives in the past: Berthe Morisot, her daughter Aimée, and her granddaughter, Colette. Shapiro does a great job taking the reader into the Paris ateliers of the Impressionists, blending a transcendent love between Manet and Morisot, family secrets, and betrayal. Less successful are the chapters in the present with Tamara who is not a particularly likable heroine.
Give me a book about art in fiction, and I’m typically thrilled. I’ve read four of Shapiro’s other books and enjoyed them a lot, but The Lost Masterpiece doesn’t live up to earlier works. One of the major points I disliked was Shapiro’s considerable fictionalization of Morisot’s life. I understand someone writing historical fiction can take whatever liberties they chose, but women artists are already at a disadvantage and don’t deserve what little claim to fame they have to be diluted and polluted. I also feel the magical realism aspects (the painting is haunted by the ghost of Morisot) detract from the story.
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The Lost Masterpiece (Algonquin Books, June 17, 2025) is available through:
Your local independent bookseller | Amazon | Barnes & Noble
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You can read my review of The Collector’s Apprentice here.
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