Goodreads asked Lynn Bushell:

Where did you get the idea for your most recent book?

Lynn Bushell I'd read that Bonnard had a model, Renee Montchaty, who'd committed suicide in 1922 after a trip to Rome with him. I couldn't find any other information but at the end of his life Bonnard had picked up on a painting 'The Women in the Garden' which he'd started after Renee's death and there she was, together with his long-time partner, Marthe. I felt hers was a story waiting to be told and since no one else had told it, I did.

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