The Portrait

An influential art critic journeys to a remote island off Frances Brittany coast to sit for a portrait painted by an old friend a gifted but tormented artist li... » 

An influential art critic journeys to a remote island off Frances Brittany coast to sit for a portrait painted by an old friend a gifted but tormented artist living in selfimposed exile. Over the course of the sitting the painter recalls their years of uneasy acquaintance the doubleedged gift of the critics patronage and the power he wielded over aspiring artists and their lives. Reminiscing at first with familiarity and then with menace the painter reveals why he has accepted the commission of this portrait why he left London mysteriously at the height of his success and why now with dark determination he feels ready to return. An influential art critic journeys to a remote island off Frances Brittany coast to sit for a portrait painted by an old friend a gifted but tormented artist living in selfimposed exile. Over the course of the sitting the painter recalls their years of uneasy acquaintance the doubleedged gift of the critics patronage and the power he wielded over aspiring artists and their lives. Reminiscing at first with familiarity and then with menace the painter reveals why he has accepted the commission of this portrait why he left London mysteriously at the height of his success and why now with dark determination he feels ready to return. «