Anyone who has visited the #museedorsay has probably spent some time transfixed by #loriginedumonde by #courbet. I certainly was the first time I saw it and then was shocked to realize how small the painting is on my second viewing more than a decade later. In my memory it had taken up a whole wall but after reading this novel all about the history of the painting I realize it had to be a smaller canvas. This is a fascinating read that provides the history of how such a controversial painting ended up finally being a prize piece in a museum collection. The author’s connection to the painting is also an interesting aspect of the story. A ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ read for those interested in #arthistory.

A fascinating book
"L'origine du monde" relates the captivating and fascinating story of un artwork from the french painter Gustave Courbet.
I highly recommend this book

🎨More about the environment than about the painting or Courbet🤔

On the whole, this was just an okay read. I liked the start which dealt with the author's personal experience discovering Courbet's scandalous work in a Paris museum and deciding right then to copy the painting. Milgrom's description of the process of applying to become one of those artists you see sketching or painting away in a museum, seemingly oblivious to visitors, was interesting and enlightening.

The fictionalization of the painting's change of owners since the 1860's seemed more like a chain of short stories, some not terribly interesting, tied together by the painting. In the course of the story the author uses the passage of time and owners to bring in the Impressionists, like the brief cameo of Claude Monet, Picasso and his Paris set and a range of international art collectors and French intellectuals. The descriptions ramble at times.

Milgrom obviously did a significant amount of research regarding the painting's journey and the changing eras its owners inhabited. I think the story might have been better left to nonfiction and was expecting more about the artist himself. Courbet's life after finishing the painting is barely touched upon and, for me, that would have been more interesting than reading about snapshots of a Turkish diplomat's or a wealthy French businessman's fictionalized life. The exception to this was the touching segment about the Hungarian owner who saved the painting from maurading Nazis, Russians and black market sheisters. I could have read much more about him and his family's harrowing experiences.

Thanks to Books Go Social and NetGalley for providing an advance copy of the book; this is my voluntary and honest review.

This is an excellent story but so badly written. Every French woman in high heels click-clacks across a parquet floor etc. A sea of cliches. Feels like it needs a good editor!

this was a really interesting read, the characters were interesting and I really enjoyed going through this book.

I had a brief affair with art history as a subject. I say brief it lasted one lecture. But no education is wasted. It gave me a fresh appreciation of art, a little more understanding and I have kept an open mind since. A recent TV show uncovering “lost” masterpieces fascinated me. Just how long is the road to authenticate any works revealed in this way and the importance of Provenance.
So this book had all the basic ingredients. A scandalous piece of art, fashioned in 1866, decades ahead of trend, as it reproduces the most intimate portrait of a female model ever conceived, commissioned for a male client, for his eyes only. How had it survived over the subsequent years when today if it were a photograph it would be in a top shelf magazine?

The concept for a book was not the author’s thought when she encountered the “L’Origine du monde” in a gallery in Paris. As an artist it was to be able to copy the masterpiece and thus in 2011 she began a close association with this controversial portrait.
The book tells of how serendipitously these events were and have become as she recounts her time in Paris copying the work of ark. Later as she researched it’s provenance she pieced together a fascinating story that revealed how and why this painting would survive. Her interest as an artist, made her a determined investigator into the forgotten history of Courbet’s work which later birthed her, into becoming a novelist.

It is such a colourful story that it deserves this fictitious gloss to arc and allow the narrative to flow; rather than a cold non-fiction art historian approach.
Lilianne writes well and the diary of events she shares are little pen biographies of the characters linked with, and whose paths crossed this work of art. Using this technique she is able to reflect and show some of the issues over time the subject matter stirred and the shocking lewd elements in engendered in male observers and why women’s opinions were mixed and more reasoned.

Without doubt all who regarded the work were moved emotionally and many understood it’s place in art history.

I enjoyed these exchanges over the decades as times and fashions change. It is startling to see the power women have over male libido while generally lacking any authority and status as human beings to control their own destinies. This plays into the growing liberation of female identity and respect, but true equality has yet to be achieved. This isn’t a political book, again the fictional overlaying leaves no room for such conclusions but as the hints for book clubs promote there is much to learn and discuss regardless of your gender.

The author does have the heart of a writer; her thoughts are well conceived and translated in her story telling. I enjoyed the book beyond any salacious voyeurism or male teenage response. The book does convey the power of this particular piece of art and the subject it depicts. But it also gives insight into a world of artists and creative talent who coalesced at times to move their ideas forward. I found the fact that Courbet wanted to bring realism into his craft enlightening. How we are indebted to those who supported artist groups, sponsored their work and saw beyond a financial investment and return , to see art for it’s own sake. These truths of innovation and creativity are just as important to our civilisation as are political expression, scientific discovery and ethical debate.

This book gave a real sense of a less taught history, a forgotten and less frequented world which came alive through Milgrom’s words and enhanced my reading pleasure in both subject and understanding.

This is a fascinating book on a number of levels. It’s an interesting recounting of the history of a particular piece of art - worth a read just for that, when you consider the paths this picture has travelled. It’s a well written story, even if it was not based in fact. And, perhaps most of all, it is a challenging reflection on society’s relationship with the female body and the taboos with which it is associated. This book will really make you think about your own attitudes and biases. It will make you uncomfortable, perhaps, but ultimately it will make you reflect on why the female form is so confronting and why history has supported that. Well written, carefully researched and definitely worth reading even if you are not a fan of the art genre.