Changes

I didn't mind that name-dropping approach to things, for it's all part and parcel of the story, and to repeat once you're OK with the almost forensic detail you will find this a compelling tale. You get multiple cliff-hanger moments as well, adding impact and poise to the narrative, although some are a little heavy-handed in foreshadowing things. She certainly lived an interesting life, in interesting times, and while I'm not always keen to get on board with a book of this length about a subject I'm mostly ignorant of, here it was fully justified. You get a very clear picture (pun not intended, for once) at the hands of this author, and throughout the story the woman's multiple changes in name, persona and status are just fragments of the multifarious things you can take on board. Certainly, to close, I think that if you are in the market for hefty books where biography and the history of art collide, you will find little to disappoint you here.

[[The Vanishing Man - In Search of Velazquez by Laura Cumming]] is similarly an art biography and so much more besides.