La Tour Dreams of the Wolf Girl
Suzanne Nelson is an art historian at a small university in Vermont. She is an emotionally detached woman who is hard to like; her husband is a successful advertising executive who seeks emotional intimacy outside his marriage. Back in 17th century France, Vivienne Lavalette, the 15-year-old daughter of the village shoemaker of Luneville, poses for the aging painter Georges de La Tour. La Tour is fascinated with the girl because she has a triangle of dark hair on her shoulder that is considered the mark of the wolf; he thinks of Vivienne as the Wolf Girl.
Anyone hoping to find a book about La Tour is in for a disappointment. There are no obvious parallels or correlations between the two stories, and there is an appalling lack of description and atmosphere. Perhaps most unforgivable is the lack of research. It seems that the author attended an exhibition of La Tour’s work and was taken by the paintings and the fact that records tell us of La Tour’s boorish behavior. While Huddle is correct that the beautiful paintings seem at odds with the artist’s actions, he never follows through with his characterization. Mr. Huddle also has La Tour painting Vivienne in the nude, though we have no evidence that he ever painted any nudes. This perhaps could be forgiven, were it not for the fact that nothing else about the La Tour part of the book seems well thought out. Even those completely unfamiliar with this artist will note the lack of depth and detail in the depiction of 17th century France.
