The Last Painting of Sara De Vos

Born the daughter of lower-middle class Australians, Ellie spends her entire life before the events of the novel attempting to overcome a sense that she in an interloper in the world of art. Ellie’s most formative experiences include her realization that her father does not value her because she is not a boy, and her anger when the owner of a painting restoration shop dismisses her ability to paint based on who she is—not the quality of her work.

Ellie gives up her dreams of being a painter and restorer to become an art historian. This decision is the first of many in which Ellie compromises to gain acceptance in a world that denigrates women and their work.

The pivotal moment in Ellie’s character development is her creation of the forgery of At the Edge of a Wood. The forgery satisfies Ellie’s desire to avenge herself on the art world for excluding her, but it also brings her into Marty’s orbit and exposes her to possible ruin after she secures a foothold in that world.

Ellie reacts to Marty’s seduction and revelation that he knows she is a forger by becoming an exemplary academic—albeit one who always feels herself to be an imposter. Ellie only comes to a greater degree of self-belief and self-acceptance after Marty gives her the means to destroy the forgery and embark on new research on the work of Sara de Vos.

Marty is the scion of prosperous Dutch immigrants to the United States. His affluence endows him with financial security and privilege, as does his job at a prestigious law firm. Despite his privilege, Marty is deeply unhappy. His inability to father children with his wife and the way his affluence shielded him from character-building challenges leave Marty feeling his life is empty and meaningless.

The turning point for Marty comes with his decision to pursue and punish Ellie for the theft and forgery of his painting. Marty’s Jake Alpert persona allows him to transgress the boundaries of his marriage, frequent jazz clubs reminding him of his younger self, and present himself as an older, wiser man worthy of admiration by the younger, naïve Ellie. Marty’s seduction reveals that this double life places him in such moral hazard he flees to New York after seducing Ellie, and again decades later to Sydney to ask for her forgiveness.

Marty’s ultimate act is to give Ellie the chance to destroy her forgery undetected. This act of generosity reveals that Marty, at the end of his life, is a less selfish person.

Kathrijn is the seven-year-old daughter of Sara and Barent de Vos. She dies of plague contracted during a painting excursion with her family. Her death is the inspiration for Sara’s masterpiece, At the Edge of a Wood. Her death is also the inciting incident that leads to the dissolution of the de Vos family and Sara’s important paintings.

Rachel is Marty’s wife. She is a socially awkward woman suffering from depression as a result of multiple miscarriages. Her life improves after the theft of At the Edge of a Wood, leading Marty to suspect that the painting is cursed. Rachel’s character is very slightly developed, and she only appears in the sections of the novel set in the 1950s. This slight representation shows how negligible an impact she has on Marty’s life.

Barent is Sara’s husband and Kathrijn’s father. Over the course of the novel, Barent evolves from a respected, financially secure painter to a man so undone by his grief and poor financial decisions that he abandons his wife.

Gabriel is the greedy, shifty man who recruits Ellie to create the forgery, later claims the reward for the return of the original painting, and sells the forgery to a Dutch museum. He is a static, flat character who represents the most extreme perspective of art as a commodity.

Meredith is a Columbia University art professor and Ellie’s dissertation advisor. Like Ellie, Meredith is something of an impostor in academia and the world of art because she is a woman. Meredith is a tenured professor by the 1950s, but she achieved that role by outworking her male peers and marrying another academic. Despite being a trailblazer, she advises Ellie to minimize Sara de Vos in order to get ahead as an academic. This advice leaves Ellie feeling betrayed and reinforces her sense that women do not belong in fields that interest her.

Pieter is a Dutch shipwright fascinated by the powerful emotional effect of At the Edge of a Wood. Despite being a no-nonsense, practical man who generally sees artists as craftsmen, Pieter spends a large sum of money to acquire the painting. Pieter’s purchase of the painting brings the work into the possession of the de Groots and shows the intersection of art as a commodity and as a representation of powerful but intangible parts of human emotion.

Griet is another grieving mother. She loses her entire family when the plague kills them alongside most of the inhabitants of Heemstede. Her grief moves Sara so much that Sara creates another painting—Winter with a Child’s Funeral Procession. Sara’s encounter with Griet is also important because it allows Sara to explicitly use her art to address the grief they both feel.