Jonathan Harr is the author of the national bestseller A Civil
Action, winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award for
Nonfiction. He is a former staff writer at the New England Monthly
and has written for The New Yorker and The New York Times Magazine.
He lives and works in Northampton, Massachusetts, where he has
taught nonfiction writing at Smith College.
To schedule a speaking engagement, please contact American Program
Bureau at www.apbspeakers.com
“Jonathan Harr has gone to the trouble of writing what will
probably be a bestseller . . . rich and wonderful . . .in truth,
the book reads better than a thriller because, unlike a lot of
best-selling nonfiction authors who write in a more or less
novelistic vein, Harr doesn't plump up his tale. He almost
never foreshadows, doesn’t implausibly reconstruct entire
conversations and rarely throws in litanies of clearly conjectured
or imagined details just for color’s sake. . . . If you're a sucker
for Rome, and for dusk . . . [you'll] enjoy Harr's more clearly
reported details about life in the city, as when—one of my favorite
moments in the whole book—Francesca and another young colleague try
to calm their nerves before a crucial meeting with a forbidding
professor by eating gelato. And who wouldn’t in Italy? The
pleasures of travelogue here are incidental but not
inconsiderable.”—The New York Times Book Review
“Jonathan Harr has taken the story of the lost painting, and woven
from it a deeply moving narrative about history, art and taste—and
about the greed, envy, covetousness and professional jealousy of
people who fall prey to obsession. It is as perfect a work of
narrative nonfiction as you could ever hope to read.”—The
Economist
“Harr’s lean, observant prose provides sensory intimacy without
sensory overload. . . . The result is a revealing portrait of a
world seldom seen by ordinary folks. . . . At its best, Harr’s
magnetic storytelling recalls Cappelletti’s first encounter with
the work of Caravaggio. To her, his paintings seemed ‘to pulse with
heat and life, capturing a moment in time like a scene glimpsed
through a window.’”—The Washington Post Book World
“[The Lost Painting] reads like a whodunit, romantic thriller and
scholarly monograph rolled into one. . . . A colorful cast of
real-life charmers, dreamers and oddballs worthy of a novelist’s
vivid imagination.”—Baltimore Sun
“With The Lost Painting . . . [Harr] bestows on it all of his
narrative gifts. . . . Cappelletti . . . notes that ‘nowadays
almost every art historian with an interest in the seicento [17th
century] had a Caravaggio article in the works, and museums
everywhere wanted to put on a Caravaggio exhibition. . . .’ She
called it ‘the Caravaggio disease.’ . . . Readers of The Lost
Painting may well find themselves similarly afflicted.”—Newsday
“Riveting . . . Harr [is] a consummate storyteller. . . . An
effortlessly educational and marvelously entertaining mix of art
history and scholarly sleuthing.”—Booklist
“Part detective story, part treasure hunt, this book takes us from
dusty basement archives to the ornate galleries of Europe’s finest
art museums. . . . Harr provides a fascinating glimpse into the
insular world of art history and restoration. . . . Art lovers and
mystery fans should find plenty to ponder and enjoy.”—Kirkus
Reviews
Given the relative obscurity of 16th-century the Italian baroque master and all-around creative bad boy Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio, who after a flare of fame remained relatively unknown from his death until the 1950s, the 1992 discovery of the artist's missing painting The Taking of Christ understandably stirred up a frenzy in academic circles. Harr's skillful and long-awaited follow-up to 1997's A Civil Action provides a finely detailed account of the fuss. While contoured brush strokes and pentimenti repaints have little to do with the toxic waters and legalese Harr dissected in his debut, the author writes comfortably about complex artistic processes and enlivens the potentially tedious details of artistic restoration with his lively and articulate prose. Broken into short, succinct chapters, the narrative unfolds at a brisk pace, skipping quickly from the perspective of 91-year-old Caravaggio scholar Sir Denis Mahon to that of young, enterprising Francesca Cappelletti, a graduate student at the University of Rome researching the disappearance of The Taking of Christ. The mystery ends with Sergio Benedetti, a restorer at the National Gallery of Ireland, who ultimately discovers the lost, grime-covered masterpiece in a house owned by Jesuit priests. But while adept at coordinating dates and analyzing hairline fractures in aged paint, Harr often seems overly concerned with the step-by-step process of tracking down The Taking of the Christ, as if the specific artist who created it were irrelevant. Granted, Harr is not an art historian, but his lack of artistic analysis of Caravaggio's paintings may frustrate readers who wish to know more about the naturalistic Italian's works. (Nov. 1) Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.
"Jonathan Harr has gone to the trouble of writing what will
probably be a bestseller . . . rich and wonderful . . .in truth,
the book reads better than a thriller because, unlike a lot of
best-selling nonfiction authors who write in a more or less
novelistic vein, Harr doesn't plump up his tale. He almost never
foreshadows, doesn't implausibly reconstruct entire conversations
and rarely throws in litanies of clearly conjectured or imagined
details just for color's sake. . . . If you're a sucker for Rome,
and for dusk . . . [you'll] enjoy Harr's more clearly reported
details about life in the city, as when-one of my favorite moments
in the whole book-Francesca and another young colleague try to calm
their nerves before a crucial meeting with a forbidding professor
by eating gelato. And who wouldn't in Italy? The pleasures of
travelogue here are incidental but not inconsiderable."-The
New York Times Book Review
"Jonathan Harr has taken the story of the lost painting, and woven
from it a deeply moving narrative about history, art and taste-and
about the greed, envy, covetousness and professional jealousy of
people who fall prey to obsession. It is as perfect a work of
narrative nonfiction as you could ever hope to read."-The
Economist
"Harr's lean, observant prose provides sensory intimacy without
sensory overload. . . . The result is a revealing portrait of a
world seldom seen by ordinary folks. . . . At its best, Harr's
magnetic storytelling recalls Cappelletti's first encounter with
the work of Caravaggio. To her, his paintings seemed 'to pulse with
heat and life, capturing a moment in time like a scene glimpsed
through a window.'"-The Washington Post Book World
"[The Lost Painting] reads like a whodunit, romantic
thriller and scholarly monograph rolled into one. . . . A colorful
cast of real-life charmers, dreamers and oddballs worthy of a
novelist's vivid imagination."-Baltimore Sun
"With The Lost Painting . . . [Harr] bestows on it all of his
narrative gifts. . . . Cappelletti . . . notes that 'nowadays
almost every art historian with an interest in the seicento [17th
century] had a Caravaggio article in the works, and museums
everywhere wanted to put on a Caravaggio exhibition. . . .' She
called it 'the Caravaggio disease.' . . . Readers of The Lost
Painting may well find themselves similarly
afflicted."-Newsday
"Riveting . . . Harr [is] a consummate storyteller. . . . An
effortlessly educational and marvelously entertaining mix of art
history and scholarly sleuthing."-Booklist
"Part detective story, part treasure hunt, this book takes us from
dusty basement archives to the ornate galleries of Europe's finest
art museums. . . . Harr provides a fascinating glimpse into the
insular world of art history and restoration. . . . Art lovers and
mystery fans should find plenty to ponder and enjoy."-Kirkus
Reviews
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