Wilson is an auctioneer who arranges political auctions for the rich and famous. She owns the company with Trey, a boyfriend with whom she has broken up. This complicates her life as she also deals with the hospitalization and death of her grandmother, Violet. Violet was a well-known New York City socialite and artist. After Violet's death Emsley is charged by her mother to clean out Violet's Greenwich home to make sure there is nothing that would tatter Violet's name. During this process she learns that Trey is plotting to dissolve the business and requires that Emsley come up with the million dollars to buy him out to save it.
During this time she becomes further engrossed in the diaries in which Johanna, after the death of her husband Theo, makes it her goal to establish Vincent as an accomplished artist. Johanna finds herself a young widow with a little son and refuses to take a back seat to no one. She is an independent woman, much like Emsley strives to become.
There are some additional, well drawn characters in the book, especially the chicken that is given to her by Violet's neighbor, Mrs. Yang. Johanna's brother, Dries, is well articulated and provides support for his sister as she deals with Theo's illness. Emsley begins to see a real genealogical connection between her grandmother and Johanna and goes to great ends to establish that relationship.
This was an incredibly well researched book and an entertaining one. There are a number of quotes that resonate with the reader. It was especially ironic that Johanna remarked that Monet had moved to Giverny to paint water lilies and that it will be “will be the end of him in the profession.”
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