The Portrait Artist by Dani Heywood-Lonsdale – #20BOS26 No 4

Full disclosure: I don’t personally know the author, but Dr Heywood-Lonsdale teaches English at the school I work for – although we’re on different sites, so I was aware of her and that she’d had a novel published, and has been promoted as a local author. When I saw that her novel was an historical art mystery – I was very keen to read it – and it didn’t disappoint!

It is 1890, and a painting is left at a side entrance to the National Gallery in London, wrapped in brown paper. It’s signed ‘Ponden-Hall’. The Gallery’s assistant director immediately contacts his old mentor and the world’s foremost expert on Ponden-Hall’s work, Solomon Oak to come down to London for his opinion. Timothy Ponden-Hall had been a gentleman explorer, travelling with his great friend, and some say lover, Hugh DeLacey. After his return from his last voyage he became a recluse and took up painting. Each painting, and there have only been ten until now, was delivered to the National Gallery secretly. No-one has seen the artist since his return. The paintings are done using an encaustic technique, mixing pigments with hot wax which can then be manipulated. All are portraits, but not all of humans, there is a horse, a woodpecker, a cow, peacocks – and now, a pig! Oak gazes at the painting:

Oak exhales a quivering breath and it is an effort to keep upright and stabilise his breathing. It has been fifty years since the last one, when Oak was only fifteen, yet here he is, still buckling in awa of these strokes, these perfect pulls of paint through wax of this master. It has always been the texture of Ponden-Hall’s works that stand out: waxy peaks and perfectly pooled globules, so rich and tactile compared to other portrait painters. Oak has always been drawn to these works for their textures – and their intimacy. Man or beast, Timothy Ponden-Hall’s gift lies in how he depicts his sitters: a knowing expression, an intimate moment captured between painter and friend; the audience feel as if they are part of the moment, part of the space. Oak has always found greater company and comfort in these paintings than he has from his flesh-and-blood friends. How is it possible to feel such intimacy with the sitter of a painting?

Oak verifies the painting, and that it is new – there is no discolouration, you can smell the oils – this means that Ponden-Hall is 81-years-old. Once the gallery announces the new painting, it’ll become a sensation. All the hoo-ha will start up again. For when Ponden-Hall returned from his last voyage, he had hinted in a letter that he’d found a ‘most prized discovery’, safely contained in a vial. No more was heard of it or the artist-to-be. When the exquisite paintings started arriving, speculation was that he had found the elixir of life, and to be still painting at 81 in 1890 must be proof of its existence, mustn’t it?

Meanwhile, Oak’s 18-year-old daughter, Alice, is gadding about Oxford trying to find a job. She is trying to save some money to do a tour of Europe, not knowing that her father has secured a position as governess to the daughters of one of his old pupils for her. Not having any luck, she is talking about it to the broom-seller on the market, when a young man taps her on the elbow. A coachman, with a hansom cab called Lou, he says he needs some help with evening deliveries if she’d be interested. Something in Alice makes her trust him and they make an agreement. However, it is not until Lou advises Alice to purchase some bloomers, worn by women cyclists back then, that Alice realises that Lou is a she, dressed as a boy so as not to attract attention. This is all very odd, but Alice is sure it’ll work out…

Back in London, Oak has agreed to give a series of lectures at the Royal Academy on the 11 Ponden-Hall paintings, and it is here that we’re introduced to the final main character in the novel, Miss Grace Dodd. Grace, a reformed thief and prostitute, has made a career change and become a ‘sitter’, a life model at the RA. She also does work there cleaning brushes and the like for the artists there. She is on a mission, an unknown benefactor has given her a pouch of money, requesting that she seed an idea in Solomon Oak’s mind as he prepares for his lectures – that the map in the first picture – a portrait of the late Hugh DeLacey from 1831 – pictures the Sandwich Islands, as Hawaii was known in those times. She creeps in behind Solomon as he contemplates the picture which is to be the subject of his first lecture and strikes up a conversation with him. She is expert at small talk, but does have a genuine interest in art, proving to be a good listener and appreciative audience for Oak to sound out his thoughts to. Oak is intrigued enough to look into her suggestion, and although they are sure that Timothy and Hugh didn’t travel there, Timothy’s father Julien did go to the Sandwich Islands with Captain Cook – what did he bring home? Is this a first clue to an artist wanting to be found?To say much more would spoil the plot, which starts thickening nicely with twists and turns aplenty.

Alongside that, there is the spectre of Alice’s dead older sister, Emma, that casts a shadow over her relationship with her father. Emma had helped her father with his work and the two were extremely close. With the girls’ mother gone too, Solomon still grieves for Emma, and Alice feels left out, although her father has been supportive of her own studies.

Solomon and Alice were both fully realised characters – both complex, and in Alice that longing for independence streak made her compelling. Solomon’s passion for the art over all, until he realises how left out Alice is feeling, is driven and full of erudition and emotion – the art makes him truly alive. Whereas Grace is wonderful, strong, worldly and a woman who is keen to improve herself, both in education and to be financially comfortable enough to indulge her passion for fashion. She adds that spark of inspiration that Solomon needs to really start investigating Ponden-Hall’s motives at remaining hidden for so long. As for Lou, well she is an enigma!

How the author combines all these elements together into a compelling mystery is a superb achievement in a debut novel. Dani Heywood-Lonsdale is of Hawaiian and Philippine descent, and by bringing that into the plot is able to add a subtle racial element to the narrative too, which is also thoroughly well-researched with regard to art techniques and the 1890s. Maybe I’m biased, but I really enjoyed this literary art mystery. I hope she writes more, and I would be especially delighted if Alice or Grace were to make another appearance.

Source: Borrowed from a colleague. Bloomsbury hardback, 2025, 326 pages.

BUY at Waterstones or Amazon UK via my affiliate links – now in paperback.