The Vanishing Velzquez

In 1845, a Reading bookseller named John Snare came across the dirt-blackened portrait of a prince at a country house auction. Suspecting that it might be a long-lost Velazquez, he bought the picture and set out to discover its strange history. When Laura Cumming stumbled on a startling trial involving John Snare, it sent her on a search of her own. At first she was pursuing the picture, and the life and work of the elusive painter, but then she found herself following the bookseller's fortunes too - from London to Edinburgh to nineteenth-century New York, from fame to ruin and exile. An innovative fusion of detection and biography, this book shows how and why great works of art can affect us, even to the point of mania. And on the trail of John Snare, Cumming makes a surprising discovery of her own. But most movingly, The Vanishing Man is an eloquent and passionate homage to the Spanish master Velazquez, bringing us closer to the creation and appreciation of his works than ever before

WINNER OF THE JAMES TAIT BLACK BIOGRAPHY PRIZE SHORTLISTED FOR THE RATHBONES FOLIO PRIZE LONGLISTED FOR THE BAILLIE GIFFORD PRIZE FOR NON-FICTION Selected as a Book of the Year in the Herald In 1845, a Reading bookseller named John Snare came across the dirt-blackened portrait of a prince at a country house auction. Suspecting that it might be a long-lost Velázquez, he bought the picture and set out to discover its strange history - a quest that led from fame to ruin and exile. Fusing detection and biography, this book shows how and why great works of art can affect us, even to the point of mania. And on the trail of John Snare, Cumming makes a surprising discovery of her own. But most movingly, The Vanishing Man is an eloquent and passionate homage to the Spanish master Velázquez, bringing us closer to the creation and appreciation of his works than ever before.

NOMINATED FOR THE 2019 NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE AWARD FOR AUTOBIOGRAPHY ONE OF NPR'S BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR SHORTLISTED FOR THE BAILLIE GIFFORD PRIZE FOR NONFICTION SHORTLISTED FOR THE RATHBONES FOLIO PRIZE LONGLISTED FOR THE RSL ONDAATJE PRIZE The acclaimed New York Times bestselling author of The Vanishing Velazquez shares a riveting true story “with as many twists and turns as any mystery” (Los Angeles Times) describing her mother’s mysterious kidnapping as a toddler in a small English coastal village—“an incredible and incredibly unusual book about family secrets” (Nick Hornby, The Believer). In the fall of 1929, when Laura Cumming’s mother was three years old, she was kidnapped from a beach on the Lincolnshire coast of England. There were no screams when she was taken, suggesting the culprit was someone familiar to her, and when she turned up again in a nearby village several days later, she was happy and in perfect health. No one was ever accused of a crime. The incident quickly faded from her memory, and her parents never discussed it. To the contrary, they deliberately hid it from her, and she did not learn of it for half a century. This was not the only secret her parents kept from her. For many years, while raising her in draconian isolation and protectiveness, they also hid the fact that she’d been adopted, and that shortly after the kidnapping, her name was changed from Grace to Betty. “Both page-turning and richly absorbing” (The Providence Journal), On Chapel Sands (originally titled Five Days Gone) unspools the tale of Cumming’s mother’s life and unravels the multiple mysteries at its core. Using photographs from the time, historical documents, and works of art, Cumming investigates this case of stolen identity w​ith the toolset of a detective and the unique intimacy of a daughter trying to understand her family’s past and its legacies. “Brilliant” (The Guardian) and “a story told with such depth of feeling and observation and such lyrical writing I couldn’t put it down” (Anna Quindlen), On Chapel Sands is a masterful blend of memoir and history, an extraordinary personal narrative unlike any other.

A fascinating journey through a single painting’s history, meanings and associations by “one of the great non-fiction writers of this and the last century” (Simon Schama, Financial Times). Acclaimed travel author and art historian Michael Jacobs was haunted by Velázquez’s enigmatic masterpiece Las Meninas from first encountering it in the Prado as a teenager. In Everything is Happening Jacobs searches for the ultimate significance of the painting by following the many associations suggested by each of its characters, as well as his own relationship to the work. From Jacobs’ first trip to Spain to the politics of Golden Age Madrid, to his meeting with the man who saved Las Meninas during the Spanish Civil war, to his experiences in the sunless world of the art history academy, Jacobs delivers a brilliantly discursive meditation on art and life that dissolves the barriers between the past and the present, the real and the illusory. Cut short by Jacobs’ death in 2014, and completed with an introduction and coda by his friend and fellow art lover, the journalist Ed Vulliamy, this visionary and often very funny book is a passionate, personal manifesto for the liberation of how we look at painting.

Focusing on the art of self-portraiture, this effortlessly engaging exploration of the lives of artists sheds fascinating light on some of the most extraordinary portraits in art history.

Thomas Lynch was once a brilliant young art historian. Now he is a disgraced, middle-aged art historian, overly fond of the bottle and of his fresh young students. But everything will change now that he's on the trail of a lost masterpiece, a legendary Madonna by the Italian master Giovanni Bellini. Insinuating himself into the crumbling English manor house where the painting may be concealed, Lynch attempts to gull the eccentric and perversely beautiful women who live there—though he himself seems to be the pawn in this elaborate game. A Victorian diary that draws Robert Browning into the painting's complicated provenance might provide the key—if only Lynch can manage to beat his hosts in the search. In the end, it will be Lynch's own vulnerable heart that betrays the betrayer. Interlaced with complex clues and hidden jokes, The Bellini Madonna reels from the lush English countryside to the sternly lovely hill towns of the Veneto, from the fifteenth century to the twenty-first. It is a spectacularly original debut.

From one of the world's most expert art critics, the incredible true story--part art history and part mystery--of a Velázquez portrait that went missing and the obsessed nineteenth-century bookseller determined to prove he had found it. When John Snare, a nineteenth-century provincial bookseller, traveled to a liquidation auction, he stumbled on a vivid portrait of King Charles I that defied any explanation. The Charles of the painting was young--too young to be king--and yet also too young to be painted by the Flemish painter to which the work was attributed. Snare had found something incredible--but what? His research brought him to Diego Velázquez, whose long-lost portrait of Prince Charles has eluded art experts for generations. Velázquez (1599-1660) was the official painter of the Madrid court, during the time the Spanish Empire teetered on the edge of collapse. When Prince Charles of England--a man wealthy enough to help turn Spain's fortunes--ventured to the court to propose a marriage with a Spanish princess, he allowed just a few hours to sit for his portrait. Snare believed only Velázquez could have met this challenge. But in making his theory public, Snare was ostracized, victim to aristocrats and critics who accused him of fraud, and forced to choose, like Velázquez himself, between art and family. A thrilling investigation into the complex meaning of authenticity and the unshakable determination that drives both artists and collectors of their work, The Vanishing Velázquez travels from extravagant Spanish courts in the 1700s to the gritty courtrooms and auction houses of nineteenth-century London and New York. But it is above all a tale of mystery and detection, of tragic mishaps and mistaken identities, of class, politics, snobbery, crime, and almost farcical accident. It is a magnificently crafted page-turner, a testimony to how and why great works of art can affect us to the point of obsession.

The Memoirs of a Life Insurance Icon: Khuda Buksh illustrates the life of a legendary Insurance Specialist who chose to serve humanity by sparking an insurance awareness movement in three countries (India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh). Between 1930 and 1970, Khuda Buksh worked tirelessly to establish the insurance business in the region, overcoming engrained religious and cultural prejudices against life insurance amid enormous political upheaval. His passion, devotion, and unique sales strategies led him to train, motivate, and manage thousands of salesmen during his long career. He earned a reputation as the countrys most magnetic and dynamic sales executive and wizard of life insurance. He played a role as an educator to the vast number of field force who placed faith in his leadership and took insurance as career. His leadership strategies helped life insurance to flourish and to penetrate nearly every portion of society. Compiled more than 35 years after Khuda Bukshs death, this book uses interviews with dozens of contemporaries and family members who reminiscence Khuda Bukshs personality and role in promoting life insurance in Bangladesh and Pakistan. He is one figure among Bengali Muslims who popularized life insurance among the people. His name itself is an institution and in his own lifetime he became a legendary figure. . . Dacca Rotary News He was an outstanding salesman who even in his dreams would only be able to think of life insurance; he was totally obsessed by it. A typical Bengali, small body, but with a big heart for everyone. . . he rose to the occasion and became a very big name in the field of life insurance. . . Wolfram W. Karnowski I still think if we measure with a balance between life insurance and Khuda Bukshit will be extremely difficult to measure, which one is heavier. A wizard with a legendary stature in insurance . . . -S. R. Khan Mr. Khuda Buksh would be very personally involved in the welfare and the personal interest of each field worker . . . As far as the life insurance industry in Pakistan is concerned, especially in the 50s and 60s, Khuda Bukshs role was undoubtedly the greatest. . . Joseph M. Pereira He used to say: think of insurance, dream of insurance, sleep of insurance. Devote your time to insurance . . . He was an unbeatable legend of insurance. . . Sharafat Ali Qureshi He was a very good leader, and this was apparent from the fact that he could train not one, but hundreds, and thousands of people. All his subordinates were just like his children . . . M. A. Chishti I used to hear about the great reputation of this giant personality of the life insurance arena. When I came to know him from close, I had no problem realizing the appropriateness of the title father of insurance by which he was known in this part of the world. . . -M. Faizur Razzaque