In this biographical novel, sisters Claire and Anne Berest tell the story of their great grandmother, Gabriele Buffet who was at the center of the modern art world at a time when women were not prominent or really seen by male artists as more than a muse. Gabriele was a musician who left that world when she fell in love and married the Spanish artist Francis Picabia, then had a five year three-way affair with Marcel Duchamp. Her rather unconventional life is beautifully documented by the great grandchildren who never got to know her.

This novel is a fascinating look at modern art, Dadaism and many of those involved in it. I had loved the Postcard, written by Anne Berest (which also has Gabriele playing a role in that story) so I was excited to read this one as well. This book looks at how one women defied conventions of womanhood, wife and motherhood to become a force in modern art.

Thank you to Europa and NetGalley for the ARC to review

I love this book and didn’t think anything could compare to The Postcard, but Anne and Claire Betest have come up with a masterpiece about their great grandmother and it’s just as haunting and magical as The Postcard.

It is a really interesting story and I can see how many will like it. I, however, did not really enjoy this one.

I found this book totally compelling, and thoroughly enjoyed it. A blend of biography, personal memoir and fictionalised dialogue and scenes, the whole melds into a fascinating account of the life of Gabriele Buffet-Picabia, the wife of the artist Francis Picabia and the authors’ great-grandmother. Acclaimed in her day, but now largely forgotten Gabriele is remembered just as the wife of Picabia, but she was so much more than that, as the book so convincingly describes. Very much part of the avant-garde, she was both talented in her own right and influential on those around her – including Picabia himself. Historical and verifiable facts are interspersed with fictions and personal reflections to great effect. I discovered so much from my reading, and was constantly turning to Google to find out more. A wonderful read for any art lover, and the authors’ meticulous research and gift for narrative make the book a real joy.

Gabriële Buffet-Picabia, who died in 1985 at the age of 104, played a fundamental role in the cultural and artistic movements of 1900s, but she would have been lost to history if her great-granddaughters, Anne and Claire Berest, had not excavated her extraordinary life. When Ann Berest, the author of the acclaimed “The Postcard,” was on tour for that bestseller, fans mentioned “Gabrielle,” which was written prior to “The Postcard,” resulting in a second book to be translated from the original French by Tina Kover.

We are introduced to Gabriele when she is 27 years old in 1908. She was in Berlin completing the musical studies that she had begun in Paris, making a living by performing. She had no attachments. Her life was carefree. She was not accountable to anyone. At a dinner held at her childhood home in Versailles, her brother brought home the fashionable painter of the moment, the fiery Spaniard Francis Picabia. Picabia was captivated by Gabriele’s mind, but she was initially dismissive of him and of his Impressionist art. Yet, “[w]hat happens between them is a meeting of the minds that gives rise to a wave of thought and creation.”

The woman who was determined not to marry, impulsively weds — after Picabia makes a detour to end things with his mistress of a decade — and Gabriele, a member of the musical avant-garde who wanted to change the world of music, ends her musical career. It is surprising and sad that this independent woman, who had been living alone in a foreign country, denied her own creativity to foster the talents of her faithless husband and to give birth to his four children. The novel explores their union, the art movements Picabia and his peers champion, and their lively, creative circle, particularly the younger artist Marcel Duchamp, who falls in love with Gabriële.

The Berests provide insight into the strictures imposed on women at the turn of the nineteenth century and the experimentation and creativity of the Belle Epoque era before the world is devastated by the Great War. The writing style is unique as the Berests break the third wall with text throughout from their point of view as great-granddaughters. This biographical novel draws on archives, interviews, and historical works to trace Gabriele’s story, although the acquiring editor has stated that certain events are collapsed to make the story more compelling. It is fortunate that this woman, a pivotal figure in the international art community, was not lost to obscurity. Thank you Europa Editions and Net Galley for this loving tribute to a revolutionary woman.

In 1985 …(our great-grandmother) Gabriële Buffet-Picabia died of natural causes at age 104. We didn’t go to her funeral, for the simple reason that we didn’t know she existed. from Gabriële by Anne and Claire Berest

It is likely, like Anne and Claire Berest, you haven’t heard of Gabriële Buffet. The sisters had to research and imagine their great-grandmother’s life to write this novel. They discovered a complicated woman, a failure as a mother and grandmother while she inspired the birth of art movements that changed the world.

Gabriële is a fascinating character and I loved delving into her life and world. Her intelligence and charisma shines through the book, enchanting readers as she did the men whose art challenged the status quo.

She won enty to music school to study composition at a time few women were admitted, but her life plans were upended when her brother introduced her to a successful Impressionist artist, Francis Picabia. An instant hit in the art world, Picabia now felt stifled by his commercially successful work. Gabriële encouraged him to do what she wanted to do in music, turning to abstraction as an art form. And Picabia paints the first abstract painting ever.

Picabia swept her off her feet and for decades she was his muse, his critic, his inspiration. He was impetuous, with manic and depressive phases, a charmer who entangled men in deep friendships and women in passionate affairs. They were intellectual equals, soulmates of the mind.

She knows she’s in the process of setting a match to gunpowder. from Gabriële by Anne and Claire Berest

Picabia needed Gabriële like a selfish child, with no consideration for her career or personal needs. Depleted by her husband’s manic life fueled by drugs and alcohol, Gabriële needed to retreat to the mountains and to see their children placed in boarding school.

They knew all the movers and shakers of the early 20th c art world. The couple became close to Marcel Duchamp, who fell in love with Gabriële and later became her lover, and with the poet Guillaume Apollinaire, Gabriële’s lifelong friend. Gabriële became close friends with the future fashion designer Elsa Schiaparelli. She was at the premier of The Rite of Spring and later became involved with Igor Stravinsky.

I knew Duchamp’s major works from our many visits to the Philadelphia Museum of Art. But Picabia’s I had to find online. He was “the hero” of the legendary 1913 Armory Show in New York City which turned the art world around, yet I had not come across him before! I recognized Gabriële’s face in some of his art, her prominent cheekbones and slanted eyes.

I was like a man. I didn’t want to put any limits on my life. from Gabriële by Anne and Claire Berest

I loved this exploration of the writers’ family history and what it revealed about a pivotal age in art.I couldn’t put it down, and I hope they write a second volume about Gabriële’s later life.

Thanks to the publisher for a free book through NetGalley.

I did not finish Gabriele at 25% - I found the cross between a fiction and a biographical account of Gabriele's life to be clunky and unengaging. I think this would be better suited to fans of music and art rather than pitched as a revolutionary and passionate love story.

Beautiful book.

(No other words on my goodreads account, but thank you so much for letting me read it! I enjoyed it.)

I loved this biographical novel about Gabrielle Buffet, a distant relative of the authors. Gabrielle's story is fascinating, and through her life I learned a lot about art and music in the early 20th century.

4.75⭐️

[a copy of this book was provided to me by the publisher from netgalley. thank you!]

beautiful work of non-fiction about love, music, feminism, & all things paris. the writing style drew me in, and the characters were interesting and three dimensional. many noteworthy passages and pretty descriptions.

Anne Berest's extraordinary book "The Postcard" was her first exploration of her mother's family, the Rabinowitzes. Mystery, history, and tragedy collide in a brilliant, heartbreaking tale.

With that kind of precedent, I was very excited to read "Gabriele," which delves into the life of Gabriele Buffet, paternal great-grandmother of sister authors Anne and Claire Berest. An artist, Gabriele was the muse of Marcel Duchamp, rubbing shoulders with noted Dadists, cubists, and surrealists before meeting and marrying painter Francis Picabia. She was also a gifted musician and critic, although her own talents were largely put aside to raise their four children. They divorced and during World War Two she worked with the French Resistance. alongside Samuel Beckett and his lover Suzanne Déchevaux-Dumesnil. She remained a decisive influence within avant-garde circles and probably outlived all of them, dying at the age of 104.

This is all pretty awesome, but "Gabriele" did not pull me in and incite the kind of emotion that "The Postcard" did. It's a good exploration of the life of a woman who had a front seat at the creation of notable artistic movements, but I found it hard to get through.

Thanks to NetGalley and Europa Editions for a digital review copy in exchange for an honest review.

This book offers a captivating look at a woman whose influence shaped early 20th-century avant-garde art, particularly through her relationship with Francis Picabia. Blending meticulous research with vivid storytelling, it not only explores their extravagant and unconventional life but also provides rich insights into the artistic movements of the time, making for a compelling and immersive read.

Here's hoping Anne Berest never runs out of relatives to writer about! I don't usually read non-fiction, but her writing is so compelling I can't put her books down. I was so excited when I heard she had a book coming out following The Postcard.

This is a fascinating story about the authors’ great-grandmother who influenced some of the revolutionary art from the turn of the 20th Century to World War I, at least from the scope of this book. Much of the book considers Gabriële’s influence on her husband at the time, Francis Picabia, and their spontaneous and extravagant lifestyle. In addition to their life together - and with others - I learned so much about western Europe before WWI, Cubism and Dadaism, and other artists of that time. The book is meticulously researched yet reads like fiction with the exceptional storytelling. I am glad this was translated to English, and I could easily see this becoming a movie.

Thank you NetGalley and Europa Editions for this advanced copy. All opinions are my own.

In trying to describe Gabrielle the authors , her great granddaughters, instead describe the complex and all consuming relationship with her husband Francis Picabia. Gabrielle had 4 children who are like ghosts in the narrative, (this is a deliberate decision) raised by Nannie’s treated like luggage and an irritation or obstacle to freedom for their parents and this is hard to read or understand through the lens of a woman alive today. For Gabrielle to disinter her son from the family tomb to make way for her ex husband an example of an unfathomable decision. I doubt that the writers understood Gabrielle either and this is a very fact-driven book. There is an uneasy tension between this story about an iconoclast, adventurer, thinker and enabler of other artists, writers, and designers and a woman, so in thrall to a selfish, narcissist who is undoubtedly bipolar , she will abandon her children’s and her own needs to mother him instead. I hoped to understand Gabrielle, perhaps being given a social, historical context for her need to rebel, sabotage, run away and challenge values and aesthetics of the day. Gabrielle is said to have made the decision to behave like a man which provided more insight. My favourite parts of the book were the personal reflection on writing about such a complex, antagonistic relative and the impact on the writers. This is a difficult book to rate because it is so factual. Despite the research and my interest in Duchamp, the early 20th century art movements and reading about a woman who was so pivotal, I found the people written about insufferable, careless, cruel, nihilistic and spoilt. But I couldn’t fault the writers.

the story was definitely nice but there was a few weaknesses. the authors interrupted the actual tale about their great-grandmother with their own convos, which was ineffective. 4 stars. tysm for the arc.

What a remarkable and intelligent novel that immerses us in the story of modern art at the beginning of the last century. The two authors, sisters and great-granddaughters of Gabriële Buffet, tell the story of this exceptionally intelligent and free-spirited woman who enabled several artists, including her husband Francis Picabia, to reach their full potential. A truly enhanced art history lesson. I loved it!

Thanks to NetGalley and Europa Editions for this advance readers copy, in exchange for an honest review. Gabriele is the true account, in novel form, of the life of Gabriele Buffet, paternal great-grandmother of the authors. I was interested in this book because I was absolutely captivated by Anne Berest’s The Postcard and was interested to continue learning more about her more interesting than average family.

This story of Gabriele Buffet’s life including her early adult years, her initial meeting and subsequent marriage to the famous painter, Francis Picabia, and many other interactions with famous artists of the time is so fascinating that it’s hard to believe it’s true. The authors do a great job at taking their research and transforming it into an intriguing novel and transforming real people into characters. Shortly into the book, you get a real sense of Gabriele’s character and come to appreciate how strong her personality is, despite how much it seems like she allowed herself to be minimized compared to her husband— she is truly a fleshed out, tangible character in this book and hers is such an intriguing story to be along for the ride with. One of my favorite elements of the book were the personal commentaries shared by the authors throughout the text, either on their thoughts about the situation at hand or about the lasting impact of Gabriele’s actions (or in some cases, inaction) on future generations of their family.

It’s clear that this book was expertly researched, with many specific details and scenes incorporated throughout, with full references at the end. Those who appreciate art and music history, especially pertinent to that time period, will appreciate the level of detail included in this book. I did need to go back a few times to keep track of all of the names referenced in this book but, I think that just goes to show the extent of impact and connections this couple had.

Overall, while this book was different from The Postcard, I still think it was an excellent read to continue on with, with these authors and their family. As mentioned before, this book would be well appreciated and I think enjoyed by art and music history fans, along with historical fiction fans. I look forward to seeing what others think when this is published and to revisiting this work again in the future!

This is an interesting historical fiction novel. The story did cover a love affair, although much of the novel read like a "who's who" in the art world during that time period, which is not the type of novel I typically read. Interesting how the authors added their own notes/impressions throughout the book. This was an advanced reader copy and I appreciate the opportunity to read this. Love the cover of the book!

Part biography and part historical fiction, I was SO looking forward to reading GABRIELE from Anne Berest (co-written with her sister Claire) because of how much I loved Anne's first book, THE POSTCARD. Like the first one, this too is a book about their family but, for me, the structure of this newer book posed some problems.

The focus of this story are the authors' great grandparents - the French artist Francis Picabia (1879-1953) and the writer Gabriële Buffet (1881-1985). Both are deeply self-absorbed iconoclasts who meet, fall in love, and marry in the early years of the 20th century.

Buffet is a brilliant musician-composer, gifted enough to access some of the educational opportunities usually limited to men. Picabia is a promising artist. Their extremely intense, co-dependent relationship is nothing short of fascinating. Buffet is wife, muse, mother, best friend, and business associate to her husband, allowing him to remain a perennial, self-indulgent adolescent. And, not surprisingly, Buffet winds up giving up her music to attend to the considerable needs of her husband. There's his opium and cocaine use to deal with. And if he were living today, Picabia would likely be diagnosed with bipolar disorder.

Part of the avant-guard wave of the early 1900s, Picabia and Buffet wind up having a significant impact on the evolving art world, even though women have second class status in both society and the arts. This is a period when non-representative art styles like Cubism and Dadaism are just emerging. The couple's friends and acquaintances are a who's who of the artistic powerhouses of their day. Like artist Marcel Duchamp, poet Guillaume Apollinaire, arts patron Mabel Dodge, visual artist Man Ray, photographer Alfred Stieglitz, writer Gertrude Stein, painter Marie Laurencin, fashion designer Elsa Schiaparelli, poet Max Jacob, writer Andre Breton, painter Wassily Kandinsky, and dancer Isadora Duncan. The book takes us deep inside the unpredictability of the art establishment at a time of experimentation and shows us the impact change has on art shows, critic reviews, success and failure.

As the two authors were growing up, their family never spoke of Picabia and Buffet. So, this book is the sisters' attempt to find out about their prominent ancestors. The authors pieced together the story from extensive research, historic writings from various players, and considerable speculation by the authors themselves. This gives the book a kind of anecdotal, episodic style, rather than a continual narrative. What bothered me most, however, was the periodic inclusion of conversations the two authors had with each other while writing the book. The authors were never identified in these conversations and it often took me a while to figure out who was speaking these quoted passages. It felt to me like they interrupted the narrative of the story. I'm the kind of reader who loves to be immersed in a story from a different time period. So these occasional interruptions immediately removed me from the story of Picabia and Buffet. I think it would have worked better to shift the information to a Foreword or concluding Author's Note.

I still recommend GABRIELE, particularly for those with an interest in the arts.