Creating a literary buzz upon publication in 2025, The Artist by Lucy Steeds dazzles amongst recent debuts. A luminous and evocative tale set in 1920s Provence, it tells the story of Joseph, an English journalist tasked with interviewing the famous, reclusive painter, Edouard Tartuffe. Joseph’s time staying with the volatile artist and his enigmatic niece, Ettie, will come to redefine all their lives in a fabulously immersive novel that manages to combine art, history, intrigue and romance, along with a stirring cameo from Peggy Guggenheim.
The novel opens with Joseph approaching Tartuffe’s rambling farmhouse, clutching a letter of introduction from his editor. He is justifiably nervous, having been warned that this celebrated artist, who has dined with the likes of Van Gogh and Cézanne, is a famously tyrannical misanthrope. His fears are confirmed by his reception; grizzly of both appearance and character, Tartuffe is decidedly unwelcoming.
It takes his niece, Ettie, to point out that Joseph would make the perfect subject for Tartuffe’s planned painting, Young Man with Orange. A deal is struck; Joseph sits for Tartuffe and in exchange he may write whatever he wishes. In theory the opportunity of a lifetime, in actuality an increasingly thorny task. Joseph finds Tartuffe unreachable; he wants to know what Tartuffe thinks of Titians’s later period, jazz music, why he retired from the Paris art scene. And Ettie, why does this self-contained young woman endure being practically a servant to her fierce uncle? A myriad questions unanswered; Ettie knows he is asking all the wrong questions.
Steeds’ ambitious and assured first novel touches on various themes, war and its impact being a common thread between the main characters. The Great War still casts its shadow across Europe and Ettie and Joseph are carrying psychological trauma. Both lives have been interrupted and touched by tragedy, Steeds weaves these war experiences poignantly into their Provençal present, and as the story unfolds, the notion of yet more sacrifice becomes unbearable.
There’s some very lovely writing here, the South of France setting gorgeously evoked, along with many lush descriptions of meal preparation and hearty feasting, or often food as props for Tartuffe’s paintings, ‘translucent flickers of ham’, ‘pomegranate seeds scattered like bloody stars’, ‘a crate of peaches so soft they look like sleeping animals’.
Joseph writes, Tartuffe paints, and Ettie runs the home and prepares Tartuffe’s canvases and art materials, along with taking care of his life admin. She is elusive, but more and more she is meeting Joseph’s eyes across the dining table.
The air hangs heavy in the sultry summer heat, something is brewing: the arrival of Tartuffe’s seedy agent, ‘…a scarlet cravat around his neck like a slit throat.’, the witnessing of a fire or maybe just a fever dream, a party of uninvited wealthy Americans, whose comments on the art world are a revelation.
A quest for light and freedom amidst mystery and misdirection, The Artist is a brilliantly seductive read.
The Artist by Lucy Steeds is published by John Murray, 304 pages.
