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Girl in Hyacinth Blue

Susan Vreeland

3.73 · Rating details · 37,654 ratings · 1,915 reviews

A professor invites a colleague from the art department to his home to view a painting he has kept secret for decades in Susan Vreeland's powerful historical novel, Girl in Hyacinth Blue. The professor swears it's a Vermeer -- but why exactly has he kept it hidden so long? The reasons unfold in a gripping sequence of stories that trace ownership of the work back to Amsterd ...more

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Paperback, 242 pages

Published October 1st 2000 by Penguin Group (first published 1999)

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Average rating 3.73 ·

Rating details

· 37,654 ratings · 1,915 reviews

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Aug 30, 2014 Jeffrey Keeten rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: the-dutch

”She thought of all the people in all the paintings she had seen that day, not just Father’s, in all the paintings of the world, in fact. Their eyes, the particular turn of a head, their loneliness or suffering or grief was borrowed by an artist to be seen by other people throughout the years who would never see them face to face. People who would be that close to her, she thought, a matter of a few arms’ lengths, looking, looking, and they would never know her.”

Johannes Vermeer self-portrai ...more

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Oct 23, 2013 Duane rated it really liked it

Shelves: reviewed-books, rated-books, historical-fiction

Art lovers will probably enjoy this book. Historical fiction, art and art history, good writing, combined for a good read. I've read several of her books and this may be my favorite. I would compare it to Tracy Chevalier's Girl with a Pearl Earring. ...more

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Jan 28, 2013 Dorie - Cats&Books :) rated it it was amazing

Shelves: historical-fiction, all-time-favorite

This is a story of a Vermeer painting, beginning with it's present owner and tracing back through about five owners and finally to the artist while painting the picture.

This was a great read. very original and interesting. I loved the strong characters in this little book, I've read it at least twice.

The prose was well written and flowed beautifully from story to story. Just a wonderful book.

Recommend for all fans of beautifully written historical fiction ...more

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Jan 27, 2011 Laura rated it really liked it

Recommends it for: Chrissie, Jeannette is next

Shelves: short-stories, bookmooch, passport-books, art-fiction, read-2012

Just arrived from Italy, kindly sent by Hayes, through BM.

This book is a collection of 8 short stories describing the story of Vermeer, the famous 17th century Dutch painter. A splendid and delightful book.

1. Love enough
2. Night different from all other nights
3. Adagia
4. Hyacinth blues

Girl in Hyacinth Blue

5. Morningshine --
6. From the personal papers of Adriaan Kuypers --
7. Still life --

The Little Street

The View of Delft

Girl Reading a Letter by an open window

The Milkmaid

Christ in the House of ...more

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Jul 31, 2007 Lisa rated it really liked it

Girl in Hyacinth Blue tells the story of a painting by the Dutch painter Vermeer, as it passes from one owner to another. Interestingly, the story is told in reverse chronological order, beginning with the math teacher who, at present time, hides the painting in his home, to the girl in the painting and her wishes to become an artist herself. I thought the book kept getting better and better as it travels back in history to reveal the effects the painting had on each owner. They all find some co ...more

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Sep 14, 2015 [Shai] Bibliophage rated it it was amazing

Shelves: books-read-2015, english-novels

I bought this book around 2008 to 2010. I just stored it in my box of books and never even bother to read it. Then I found this while I was sorting box recently. I never expected that I was deeply engrossed in the stories most especially Morningshine, From the Personal Papers of Adriaan Kuypers and Still Life. This is one of those books that is a page-turner and you'll still definitely love to read after several years have passed. ...more

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Oct 20, 2008 Book Concierge rated it it was amazing

Shelves: concierge, own, culture, art, historical-fiction, library, book-club

A previously "undiscovered" Vermeer is revealed and the author traces its ownership back in time to its origination. Each owner (or custodian) has a slightly different reason for wanting to keep the painting, and different reasons for letting it go. Each time it changes hands, the owner is pained to part with it. And still, for everyone it represents longing and wishes unfulfilled.

...more

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Mar 27, 2012 Susan Vreeland added it

This entry will be out of the ordinary. I wrote GIRL IN HYACINTH BLUE,and somehow it appeared in the wrong place on Goodreads. I can't seem to remove it, so I might as well supply a review.

NEW YORK TIMES
December 19, 1999
Picture This: A novel of a haunting painting and its effect on a succession of owners over three centuries.
Girl in Hyacinth Blue, by Susan Vreeland
by Katy Emck
Susan Vreeland's second novel, "Girl in Hyacinth Blue," may be a book about a painting, but it is never content with sur This entry will be out of the ordinary. I wrote GIRL IN HYACINTH BLUE,and somehow it appeared in the wrong place on Goodreads. I can't seem to remove it, so I might as well supply a review.

NEW YORK TIMES
December 19, 1999
Picture This: A novel of a haunting painting and its effect on a succession of owners over three centuries.
Girl in Hyacinth Blue, by Susan Vreeland
by Katy Emck
Susan Vreeland's second novel, "Girl in Hyacinth Blue," may be a book about a painting, but it is never content with surfaces. Tracing the influence of one extraordinary picture on a succession of human lives, it touches gently yet thoughtfully on such weighty topics as the immortality of a great artwork and the ways in which art can be used for various ends. In the course of her explorations, Vreeland covers a lot of time and space: "Girl in Hyacinth Blue" begins in present-day America and ends in the 17th century Netherlands, scrolling backward as each chapter accounts for the painting's role in the life of one of its owners.
Among other things, Vreeland has given us an art detective story, since the early chapters suggest that this marvelous painting--a portrait of a young girl whose face seems to be filled with dreams and longings--may be a lost Vermeer. When we first encounter it, the picture is hidden from view, its possession the dark secret of a lonely mathematician whose father looted it from a Dutch Jewish family that he then sent to die in a concentration camp. Horrified by his father's crimes, he worships the painting with obsessional fervor, fearing that if anyone sees it, the secret of its provenance will come to light. But, as is the way with such things, he also feels compelled to show off his trophy.
The chapter that displays the mathematician's solitary, guilt-filled pleasure is followed by another that provides a lively view of the close-knit Jewish family from whom the painting was stolen--and particularly of the young daughter who identifies with its subject, a girl just about her own age. This sequence establishes the pattern for the book's structure: each chapter stands on its own, a marvel of economy, yet also builds on the knowledge the reader has already gained.
Vreeland is especially good at conveying the tensions that arise among her characters but go largely unspoken. She is also adept at capturing the differing sensibilities of various historical periods, working unobtrusively and successfully avoiding a contrived "period" feel. In the process, she provides her own nicely sketched gallery of portraits: a frivolous Frenchwoman marooned in a loveless marriage in the 19th-century Netherlands; an 18th-century farmer's wife hungering for beauty in the midst of the flat Dutch countryside; and an Enlightenment scientist who embarks on an affair with a superstitious serving girl.
In all these episodes, the painting is pivotal, both in a practical and a spiritual sense. The aristocratic Frenchwoman hates all things Dutch except the girl in the painting because she recognizes in her a sense of hope that she herself has lost. The farmer's wife loves the same girl because she symbolizes a serene loveliness that is unattainable for people who labor in the fields. In the end, each woman is forced to sell the painting so that each, in her own very different way, can survive. But for each of them, the possession of "Girl in Hyacinth Blue" leads to profound changes.
This conflict of the spiritual and the practical comes to dominate the final chapters of the novel in which the exigencies of the painter's life are movingly brought to the fore. Like many of its predecessors, the penultimate chapter is filled with a sense of tenderness, of gratitude for the gift of life--a mood that doesn't cloy because it is accompanied by a clear evocation of the daily stresses of loving and living. But the crowning chapter is the final one, which introduces the girl in the picture and provides a glimpse of what is actually going on behind those dreamy eyes.
Throughout "Girl in Hyacinth Blue," Vreeland strikes a pleasant balance between the timeless world of the painting as a work of art and the finite worlds of its possessors and admirers--not to mention the world of its subject and its creator. Intelligent, searching and unusual, the novel is filled with luminous moments; like the painting it describes so well, it has a way of lingering in the reader's mind.

Katy Emck is a freelance reviewer based in London.

...more

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May 24, 2009 Hayes rated it really liked it

Recommends it for: Brazilliant Laura is next

Shelves: read-in-2012, tbr-challenge-2012

I liked this gentle story very much. We follow an imaginary painting back in time. We first see it hanging on the wall in a Math teacher’s house. The teacher is enigmatic and strange, and his story reveals the shady nature of the "acquisition" of this painting by his father in Amsterdam. And we don’t know: is it, or is it not by the Master Jan Vermeer?

We are taken slowly back in time, until we arrive at the moment that the painting was created, first in the mind of the artist and then on canvas ...more

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Apr 17, 2019 Wyndy rated it really liked it

Shelves: 2019-reads, stories-novellas-essays, historical-fiction

This book has been on my shelf for years, so I randomly picked it up with low expectations, looking for something calm, easy and historical, and was immediately drawn in to author Susan Vreeland’s imaginary tale of a 17th century Dutch painting, assumed to be the work of master Johannes Vermeer, and its journey through the centuries. ‘Girl In Hyacinth Blue’ is a series of tightly interwoven short stories that make a complete novel. Each story is its own time capsule, taking us backward through e ...more

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Jul 28, 2011 Adriane Devries rated it really liked it

Shelves: book-clubbing

The Girl in Hyacinth Blue, by Susan Vreeland, was a well-written, thought provoking and inspiring book; but to tell you the truth, I probably would not have finished it if it weren’t for the fact that I was in a book club that keeps me accountable. It’s the perfect example of why I’m in this book club in the first place: to keep me reading things that challenge me a bit, rather than always the easy, thrilling Dan Brown or JK Rowling types.

I liked Girl in Hyacinth Blue, not only because it portr The Girl in Hyacinth Blue, by Susan Vreeland, was a well-written, thought provoking and inspiring book; but to tell you the truth, I probably would not have finished it if it weren’t for the fact that I was in a book club that keeps me accountable. It’s the perfect example of why I’m in this book club in the first place: to keep me reading things that challenge me a bit, rather than always the easy, thrilling Dan Brown or JK Rowling types.

I liked Girl in Hyacinth Blue, not only because it portrays the impact of a single piece of forgotten art in the lives of dramatically different people over several centures; but also for its treatment of the figure in the painting itself: the “girl in hyacinth blue” was the daughter of the Dutch painter Vermeer, and she wondered what people would feel when they looked on her father’s painting, reflecting to herself that “they will never know me.” You can hear her struggling with the question of her worth as a woman, a mere daughter of a then-struggling artist who never himself had time to notice his daughter, except when he studied her academically for her portrait.

I feel affinity for this girl because the very element that drew admiration and other passionate feelings for the painting was her expression of deep longing. This longing is a recurring theme in my own art and writing, as it is in so much of the art that is already out there. My question, like hers, and like Vermeer’s no doubt was, has always been, Does the world need another painting? Another novel? Another voice like mine? Might someone out there be moved by my outpouring of my own unfinished heart?

Vreeland’s novel attempts to prove that life would be unlivable without the inspiration and beauty of art. And as not everyone appreciates even a Vermeer painting, its worth centuries later is undeniable; so also each work of art, each individual life like mine, has a purpose that will impact generations to come, even if “they will never know me.” ...more

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Feb 09, 2019 Nancy rated it really liked it

Shelves: 2019-books, 2019-tbr-challenge, 80-countries

This is a delightful story telling the journey of a painting presumably painted by the Dutch master Vermeer. It tells it's journey in reverse starting with it's present day owner who is a Math professor in Philadelphia and working it's way back to it's origins in The Netherlands where the daughter of the painter must relinquish her hold on it when her circumstances are dire.

We learn the stories of each person or family who has acquired the painting, their attachment to it and eventually how or ...more

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Mar 04, 2019 Celia rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: 52-2019, historical-fiction, art, ten-year-challenge, 2019-read, kindle

Susan Vreeland loved to write historical fiction about art. I LOVE to read historical fiction about art. What a match!!

I did not know what to expect from this book with stories written about a fictional Dutch painting from the 1600's. A very pleasant surprise indeed.

The story starts in the present day where a professor swears he has a Vermeer. No provenance that proves it. He just KNOWS!!

The rest of the chapters describe where the painting has been and its origin. I LOVED this story telling. And ...more

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Jan 09, 2008 Rachael rated it really liked it

I really enjoyed this book. I've owned it for seven or eight years now, and I reread it every six months or so. It's a beautifully written series of brief chapter-sized vignettes recounting the history of a Vermeer painting, as told (in reverse chronological order) by all the people who have possessed the painting. The final stor(ies) are told by the painting's model, Vermeer's daughter. Each chapter also deals with the decision of each character to give up the painting for various reasons.

Coup ...more

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Aug 04, 2012 Carol rated it it was amazing

Shelves: vermeer

Great read! Vreeland writes several short stories of a lost Vermeer painting and the people whose lives it touched. The stories are told from the present to long ago, back in time. This lost painting is a portrait of a young woman looking out a window, lost in thought, brilliantly clothed in hyacinth blues. The stories contain exquisite visual descriptions of his artwork and the everyday lives of ordinary women. I loved how Vreeland described color and how his paintings contained the "dust of cr ...more

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Jul 21, 2013 Jenny (Reading Envy) rated it really liked it

Recommended to Jenny (Reading Envy) by: Suzanne

Shelves: read2013, around-the-world, location-holland

I recently read Girl with a Pearl Earring because I'm going to go see it at the High Museum in Atlanta, and another GoodReads friend turned me on to this book. Most of the chapters of this book were previously published individually, all telling bits of a story of another Vermeer painting. I loved how there was so much mystery to the painting, so many stories surrounding it, even if they were fiction, still an enjoyable read. Her descriptions of the landscape are also very vivid.

Little bits I ma ...more

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Jul 17, 2008 Jeanette (Again) rated it really liked it

Shelves: all-fiction, historical-fiction, europe-and-british-isles, four-star-fiction

I like the way this author writes. This is one of those books where an object is the main character, rather than a person. In this case, the object is a (fictional) Vermeer painting of a girl sitting and looking out the window with her sewing in her lap.
There are eight interconnected stories that follow the painting back through history to its various owners and how they came to own or sell the painting. Eventually it works back to Vermeer's creation of the painting.
My only complaint is that I ...more

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Dec 21, 2014 Natasa rated it really liked it

Shelves: mystery-thriller, art-history

I was impressed with Vreeland’s superb research and storytelling talents. This was a wonderful book that is not only an excellent work of historical fiction but also presents an intriguing mystery that makes for an enjoyable read.

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Jun 28, 2017 Jaksen rated it really liked it

Excellent book...

I picked this little book up at a 'nature' site on Cape Cod, a location where there are gardens and flowers for sale, and a little house where home-made jams and jellies are made. I visit every year and buy hand-made bars of soap, visit the bees in the bee hive, maybe buy a funny fake snake or two. This year they had a few used books for sale and the title of this book...I couldn't resist!

It's the story of a painting, and its 'provenance' back through time. Who owned it, when a ...more

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Feb 08, 2018 Deborah Ideiosepius rated it liked it

Shelves: 2018-reading-challenge, fiction, art, europe

A very nicely written series of stories revolving around the central theme of a painting.

If this rating lacks the warmth nay even ecstasy of some other reviews I saw before acquiring it, this is due to a couple of factors that I, the reader brought to it rather than any inherent insufficiency of the book itself:

The first thing that rather set me back was that it is very much individual stories. Not interconnected stories even and certainly not 'a novel' as represented. As a fast reader, I find A very nicely written series of stories revolving around the central theme of a painting.

If this rating lacks the warmth nay even ecstasy of some other reviews I saw before acquiring it, this is due to a couple of factors that I, the reader brought to it rather than any inherent insufficiency of the book itself:

The first thing that rather set me back was that it is very much individual stories. Not interconnected stories even and certainly not 'a novel' as represented. As a fast reader, I find story collections a bit of a trial because they are over so fast. In this story collection we trace the painting of The Girl In Hyacinth blue back through time. It is a nice touch that we go back to the beginning from the modern age instead of the other way, as most narratives would choose. It is also exquisitely researched, loved the historic detail and the artistically influenced scene descriptions.

We start as a modern day teacher shows his secret Vermeer to a fellow art teacher. He will not say where he got it (since he is shielding his dead father, a Nazi) but describes the history of Vermeer and the artistic qualities of the painting in great detail. The story was good, despite the fact that I didn't care for the characters and did not feel they resonated as real people. Still a good story.

We then go back to the Nazi era and the family who owned it. Also a good story, but it was a jump from the previous characters and while well written, I never really bonded to any of the people in it because it was too short for me to do so.

After that, we start jumping further and further back, I feel that the further the stories got from the modern day, the more detail and research went into them and the more I liked them, the last two are interconnected with the artist and his daughter, showing the origin of the painting from two different perspectives. Now, while I did, very much, enjoy these earlier stories I was acutely frustrated by the lack of dates. I could date 'modern day' and WWII at the beginning, I could date Vermeer at the end, all the middle was a blur. This was outright annoying, I don't know Dutch history anywhere near enough to know when floods happened, and the French conquered it? Maybe? Was that what the story of the twittering French chick was all about?

The lack of dates annoyed me. Several of the characters (while adequate vehicles for the story) were rudimentary and impossible to bond with. And short stories! Do not sell me short stories claiming they are a novel. It is false advertising.
...more

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Jul 15, 2009 Sun rated it liked it

This is one of the better novels inspired by the paintings of Vermeer. I say that because I've recently read 4 of them:

Tracey Chevalier's Girl with a Pearl Earring was undoubtedly the best of them, with a solid plotline, populated by recognisable characters and was sophisticated enough to involve thematic imagery.

This is followed by Susan Vreeland's Girl in Hyacinth Blue. The writing is good in this but the book is not so much a novel but a series of short stories that are linked by one Vermeer ...more

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Feb 12, 2016 Sheri rated it liked it

I was not impressed. This is simply a collection of short stories that are all sort of connected by this painting. Occasionally the stories are linked (the last guy is guilty over his Nazi father's theft of the painting from a Jewish family and the 2nd owner gets it along with a baby whose origins are explained in the next story), but more often than not the current story protagonist simply got the painting at an auction. The idea is cute (how things travel down through time without their histor I was not impressed. This is simply a collection of short stories that are all sort of connected by this painting. Occasionally the stories are linked (the last guy is guilty over his Nazi father's theft of the painting from a Jewish family and the 2nd owner gets it along with a baby whose origins are explained in the next story), but more often than not the current story protagonist simply got the painting at an auction. The idea is cute (how things travel down through time without their history attached) and of course there are many lost works of art throughout time. However, the execution was less than fabulous. It just read like some short stories set in or near Amsterdam.

That said, there were a few good quotes and some themes. The most noteworthy was the importance of enjoying the moment (rather than worrying about the future) and discovering the value of love:
"When you reduced even a fledging love affair to its essentials--I loved her, she maybe loved me, I was foolish, I suffered--it became vacuous and trite, meaningless to anyone else. In the end, it's only the moments that we have, the kiss on the palm, the joint wonder at the furrowed texture of a fir trunk or at the infinitude of grains of sand in a dune. Only the moments."
"All this imagining of the past seemed to be a squandering of the present. A flood of now washed over him, like water breaking through a dike and he welcomed it.
"He lived so badly, it seemed, because he always came into the moment encumbered."
"she did not yet know that lives end abruptly, that much of living is repetition and separation"

I was also annoyed that the last chapter was from the daughter's (subject's) point of view. This was sort of an extraneous chapter; I felt like Vreeland should have picked one (either Vermeer or the daughter) for the last chapter. Instead, she wrote the ending from Vermeer's perspective and then tacked on a feminist chapter at the end. This just read as an extra short story and an attempt to appeal to modern readers with a feminist perspective.

Overall it was just sort of "meh". ...more

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Apr 18, 2020 Janice Boychuk rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction, reality, e-book, historical-fiction, my-personal-faves, art, historical-non-fiction, history

I absolutely adored this book, a personal favourite for 2020!!!

I first read about this particular painter in the book Girl with a Pearl Earring by Tracy Chevalier. Recalling details from that book provided a sense of familiarity and added depth to this novel.

The writing followed provenance - from present owner to the painting's origin. It was clever, interesting, engaging and every "story" within the story was fascinating.

Some bits I gleaned from the book:

“One must take notice of the measur ...more

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Jun 29, 2010 Kate Forsyth rated it it was amazing

One of my all-time favourite books by one of my all-time favourite authors, GIRL IN HYACINTH BLUE tells the story of a painting in a series of interlinked vignettes moving backwards in time.

The first is set in contemporary times, telling the story of a middle-aged man who has in his possession an extraordinary painting of a young girl which he believes is a lost Vermeer. He cannot prove it, however, for the painting has no provenance. And he cannot show it to any specialists, because the painti ...more

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Feb 10, 2008 Kathy Bowman rated it it was ok

Shelves: just-for-fun

Am I the only one that found this book disappointing? This book traces the owners of a Vermeer painting backwards through time. The result is quite choppy, more like a set of short stories than a novel. I actually had a difficult time caring about the first several owners. Maybe I was tired, but I also had a difficult time tracing the painting's transfer of ownership until it came to the last few. I did enjoy the last several chapters more, but by then I felt it was too late.

In some ways, this ...more

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Feb 16, 2018 Sanja_Sanjalica rated it it was amazing

Shelves: i-own

4.5 Half a point less for interrupting some of my favorite storylines just when I got into them. Still, a wonderful story of an imaginary painting, but actually a story about humanity, art and different perspectives. A great idea and an interesting style. Really made me think ponder about art and human obsession with beauty and inconsistency of life.

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Apr 14, 2017 Katie rated it it was amazing

Reading this made me remember how I love reading books about art. This novel tells the story of a painting thought to be a lost Vermeer in 8 stories going backward it time from the present through its various owners back to the story of the painter and the subject. I loved the structure and each story.

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May 10, 2012 Sara rated it liked it

Shelves: undecided

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. MY TAKE: ** Love enough ** My soul shuddered **
Some of the stories were difficult to get into or stay interested in, but the whole collection together is quite beautiful. I enjoyed the timeline and the build and progression (or rather, regression)of the painting, and the different meaning that it had for so many people. This novel was lyrically written, with a smooth continuous flow, and each story touching in its own way. It is interesting to think about how “things outlive people.” Art affects MY TAKE: ** Love enough ** My soul shuddered **
Some of the stories were difficult to get into or stay interested in, but the whole collection together is quite beautiful. I enjoyed the timeline and the build and progression (or rather, regression)of the painting, and the different meaning that it had for so many people. This novel was lyrically written, with a smooth continuous flow, and each story touching in its own way. It is interesting to think about how “things outlive people.” Art affects us all differently, but I like to believe that it draws an emotion from you, whether it provides hope, or sparks your imagination, or is a dream. It isn’t just a picture, but can tell a lot about a person in what they choose to display in their home. This single painting had so many different meanings – the loss of innocence about his father, a moral dilemma of theft and ownership, evidence of the crimes of the Holocaust and the forced eviction of Jews, inspiration toward a loving selfless act of resistance, remembrance of lost love, a father’s pain of releasing his daughter to her new husband, a marital peace offering from a philandering husband, the ache of being barren, a lure for seduction, a means of support for an abandoned baby, a source of conflict for a couple about what is important in life, evidence of spirits and witches, material gain from participation in the slave trade, a payment of debt, a means to gain parental love and attention, a remembrance of things past.

QUOTES:
Of the unpredictableness of one’s end, and what remains unpardoned. ** In the end, its only the moments that we have, the kiss on the palm, the joint wonder at the furrowed texture of a fir trunk or at the infinitude of grains of sand in a dune. Only the moments. ** There’s got to be some beauty too. ** Work is love made plain. ** It would be a pity if it scarred, but few there are who go through life unmarked. ** With her I was in another world, drawn into her being. ** I had fancied love a casual adjunct and not the central turning shaft making all parts move. I had not stood astonished before the power of its turning. ** It makes the whole corner sacred with the tenderness of just living. ** … she heard the creak and thrum of the south windmill turning like her heart in the sea wind … ** Wishes had the power to knock the breath out of her.

NEW YORK TIMES – GIRL IN HYACINTH BLUE Susan Vreeland's second novel, "Girl in Hyacinth Blue," may be a book about a painting, but it is never content with surfaces. Tracing the influence of one extraordinary picture on a succession of human lives, it touches gently yet thoughtfully on such weighty topics as the immortality of a great artwork and the ways in which art can be used for various ends. In the course of her explorations, Vreeland covers a lot of time and space: "Girl in Hyacinth Blue" begins in present-day America and ends in the 17th century Netherlands, scrolling backward as each chapter accounts for the painting's role in the life of one of its owners. Among other things, Vreeland has given us an art detective story, since the early chapters suggest that this marvelous painting--a portrait of a young girl whose face seems to be filled with dreams and longings--may be a lost Vermeer. When we first encounter it, the picture is hidden from view, its possession the dark secret of a lonely mathematician whose father looted it from a Dutch Jewish family that he then sent to die in a concentration camp. Horrified by his father's crimes, he worships the painting with obsessional fervor, fearing that if anyone sees it, the secret of its provenance will come to light. But, as is the way with such things, he also feels compelled to show off his trophy. The chapter that displays the mathematician's solitary, guilt-filled pleasure is followed by another that provides a lively view of the close-knit Jewish family from whom the painting was stolen--and particularly of the young daughter who identifies with its subject, a girl just about her own age. This sequence establishes the pattern for the book's structure: each chapter stands on its own, a marvel of economy, yet also builds on the knowledge the reader has already gained. Vreeland is especially good at conveying the tensions that arise among her characters but go largely unspoken. She is also adept at capturing the differing sensibilities of various historical periods, working unobtrusively and successfully avoiding a contrived "period" feel. In the process, she provides her own nicely sketched gallery of portraits: a frivolous Frenchwoman marooned in a loveless marriage in the 19th-century Netherlands; an 18th-century farmer's wife hungering for beauty in the midst of the flat Dutch countryside; and an Enlightenment scientist who embarks on an affair with a superstitious serving girl. In all these episodes, the painting is pivotal, both in a practical and a spiritual sense. The aristocratic Frenchwoman hates all things Dutch except the girl in the painting because she recognizes in her a sense of hope that she herself has lost. The farmer's wife loves the same girl because she symbolizes a serene loveliness that is unattainable for people who labor in the fields. In the end, each woman is forced to sell the painting so that each, in her own very different way, can survive. But for each of them, the possession of "Girl in Hyacinth Blue" leads to profound changes. This conflict of the spiritual and the practical comes to dominate the final chapters of the novel in which the exigencies of the painter's life are movingly brought to the fore. Like many of its predecessors, the penultimate chapter is filled with a sense of tenderness, of gratitude for the gift of life--a mood that doesn't cloy because it is accompanied by a clear evocation of the daily stresses of loving and living. But the crowning chapter is the final one, which introduces the girl in the picture and provides a glimpse of what is actually going on behind those dreamy eyes. Throughout "Girl in Hyacinth Blue," Vreeland strikes a pleasant balance between the timeless world of the painting as a work of art and the finite worlds of its possessors and admirers--not to mention the world of its subject and its creator. Intelligent, searching and unusual, the novel is filled with luminous moments; like the painting it describes so well, it has a way of lingering in the reader's mind.
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Jun 05, 2017 Dramatika rated it really liked it

A collection of stories related to the painting by Vermeer.

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Apr 27, 2011 Deb rated it liked it · review of another edition

I'm really not one for collections of short stories. I'm admittedly voracious in all things and that does not exclude my reading choices. I always feel short stories leave me still hungry for more. I'm frequently fond of saying, "I don't want a taste. That's just a tease. I want the whole thing." However, very rarely a book of short stories comes along which I find appropriate and satisfying. This is the case with Girl In Hyacinth Blue.

I've not read any of Susan Vreeland's books previously but h I'm really not one for collections of short stories. I'm admittedly voracious in all things and that does not exclude my reading choices. I always feel short stories leave me still hungry for more. I'm frequently fond of saying, "I don't want a taste. That's just a tease. I want the whole thing." However, very rarely a book of short stories comes along which I find appropriate and satisfying. This is the case with Girl In Hyacinth Blue.

I've not read any of Susan Vreeland's books previously but have several on my books to read list because the titles, the premise is always very intriguing. Such is most definitely the fact with this particular book. The idea of taking an object, a painting or an instrument, that because it is an object vs a life is timeless and following it through it's life has always struck me as a fascinating premise for a book. Every since I saw the movie "The Red Violin" years ago, I've been on the look out for books with a similar idea. As an avid reader of the historical fiction genre, it's a given that a story in this classification will take place in a historical setting or take the reader on a journey backward through a characters life. But the thought of the journey not being with a person, per se, but with an object.. well the possibilities are limitless. People come and go. Live and die but man made things, when we consider, have a life of their own which is often in a sense eternal.

Girl in Hyacinth Blue is a book of short stories, a connected history about a painting created in the 1600's by artist Johannes Vermeer. This in a sense is a story of this paintings life. Each chapter is a glance into the current owners life and how this painting effects their life. Who knew a painting could have such an affect on someones very existence? It's very interesting to consider. Each chapter fit together well in the book, so the fact that they were short stories actually didn't bother me. I will say that in my opinion, the first two stories were the most compelling and the rest of the stories in the book were slightly paled in comparison.

Would I recommend it? To historical fiction and readers who also love art, yes I recommend it. It's a short quick read. I'm giving it technically 3 1/2 stars (although the rating chart doesn't allow it) because I liked it, it was good but the passion from chapter's 1&2 could have been carried out a little more in my opinion. I will try other books by this author.
I tried to post my thoughts as I considered them at pivotal parts of the book to give a feel for what that particular short story caused me to consider. ...more

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About Susan Vreeland

Susan Vreeland

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Susan Vreeland is an internationally renowned best-selling author and four-time winner of the Theodor Geisel Award for Fiction, the San Diego Book Award’s highest honor. She is known for writing historical fiction on art-related themes, including Girl in Hyacinth Blue, The Passion of Artemisia, Luncheon of the Boating Party, and Clara and Mr. Tiffany. Her books have been translated into 26 languag ...more