The Pelton Papers, a novel. Marie Coates. 2020. I was not familiar with this artist: Agnes Pelton, 1881-1961, and when I looked her up, I wasn’t really impressed with her paintings. However, I did enjoy reading this book. As with any novel based on a real person, the author maintained the facts about the artist’s life were true, but she added to them to make a readable novel. And it is, if you enjoy reading about an artists techniques and creatives processes. ( )

Agnes Pelton was an American artist who was a modernist painter who acheived some notoriety in New York art circles prior to WWI. Her family history was a bit interesting and downright scandalous for the times but Agnes herself never did anything overtly out of line. She never married and the book leaves one with the impression she was a lesbian but too afraid to act upon her feelings.

Agnes was born in Germany to American parents and they all moved back to the States when she was still a child. Her parent’s marriage was a complicated one and her father was not part of her life for long. She was also sickly as a child. She did show promise as a young artist and she was sent to the Pratt Institute where her art education started.

This is a hard book to really describe. It’s not going to be for everyone. I would say an interest in art/art history is going to be helpful as so much of the narrative revolves around art, artists and art movements. I will admit that modern art is probably my least favorite art of any yet I still did find this book interesting. Being totally unfamiliar with Ms. Pelton I found it very helpful to have my phone or laptop handy so I could look up her works as they were described in the book to see what they looked like.

It’s an evenly paced, calm, well researched tale about an interesting woman. I always enjoy learning about new people from history and I have to admit that I have researching Ms. Pelton’s works since I finished the book. Despite not generally caring for abstract/modern art I have found myself quite intrigued by several of her pieces. She was also quite an accomplished portraitist as well.

The thing I found a bit disconcerting in the book was how Agnes’s story was told through history, history was often not included. The Depression was hardly mentioned at all and I found that rather shocking. From reading the book it hardling impacted Agnes’s life beyond an art show not having good attendence. I would expect that it had more effect on her life. But I suppose the focus of this author was on Agnes and Agnes alone.

I found it to be a nice diversion from my regular reading adventures. If you love art or are even interested in art give this book a try. If nothing else, give the works of Agnes Pelton a look. They will grow on you. ( )