#BlogTour-‘The Optickal Illusion’ by Rachel Halliburton

About the book…

Based on a true story of envy, lust and corruption… It is three years from the dawn of a new century and nothing is certain anymore: London is aflame with conspiracies and the French could invade any day. Amidst this feverish atmosphere, the American painter Benjamin West is visited by a strange father and daughter who claim to know the secret techniques of master Titian – a mystery that has obsessed painters for centuries.

Against his better judgement he agrees to let the intriguing Ann Jemima Provis visit his studio and demonstrate what she knows. What unravels reveals more than he has ever understood about himself, about the treachery of art and the seductive promise of genius.

With the world poised on the edge of Revolution, England is in turmoil at the start of ‘The Optickal Illusion’ by Rachel Halliburton, with the spectre of the French Revolution looming, The American Civil War, a king who was behaving increasingly manically and the art movement being principally driven by men. Into this comes the talented Ann Jemima Provis with her father, Thomas, who claim to have a manuscript that will teach people how to paint like Titian.

Approaching American artist, Benjamin West, he is left with the choice of paying them for this manuscript which gives it legitimacy, or , in ignoring it, accepting the fact that Ann Jemima, who has learnt to paint a Titian style from it, is a better artist than many men.Including himself.

Caught between these decisions, is a young woman who wants to be seen and exhibited as well as taken seriously as an artist.

”London sleeps.Yet though the jabber of voices is stilled,and the dark dissolves the distinction between one house and another,there’s still a sense of the constant ferment that makes a city.Hundreds of thousands lie in their beds,but their ideas,dreams and motivations swirl and mature in the encompassing blackness,colliding blearily as they head towards the light.Some of these ideas will burst the moment da breaks,others will go on-for better or worse-to subtly alter the chemical composition of the city.”

The Provis’ demand financial compensation in return for the secrets hidden in the manuscript. Not trusting them, and also seeing an opportunity for an American to hold court at the most British of Institutions-The Royal Academy- Benjamin,himself in a fallow period ,abandoned by his muse, paints with Ann Jemima, ‘The Venus Consoling Cupid Stung By A Bee’, using the methods outlined in the Titian manuscript to show that it actually works. As a consequence, pleased with the effects of the technique, he not only decides that all of his paintings will be created this way and displayed at the Royal Academy ,he gives no credit to Ann Jemima whatsoever.

Bluff, counter bluff and intrigue follow as the nature of art, what belongs to who and licence to reinvent the creation of artistic masterpieces, is all laid out on the knife edge of sweeping political, societal and cultural change.

Who does an idea belong to? Is it possible to be sold and can you take credit for a painting, if the technique you use has been shown to you by someone else? Is the owndership of it that of the artist, or is the value it endgenders in the eye of the beholder more important?

Beautifully written with a sense of urgency at a time of upheaval, I absolutely loved the historical details of a time that I know a little about ,having studied the French Revolution, being spun on an axis to discuss great changes in the way people regarded the art of the time. So much research and love has gone into the representation of characters that we, the reader, know such as Mary Woolstencraft, and people about whom little is known, for example, the Provis’.

Will Ann Jemima let Benjamin take the credit for finding this new technique, and if not, how will a woman be able to stand against the head of the Royal Academy, and someone who has the ear of the King?

I would thoroughly recommend thsi fascinating novel to anyone who has a passing interest in this period in history, art, or basically a great stroy well told.The recreation of London is fantastic, Rachel Halliburton has brought it to life as a character in itself,and I can see myself not only reading this again as there is so much enjoyment to be gained from an intriguing story, so well told, but also looking at my interest in  art history of the Georgian period has been well and truly piqued!

About the author…

Rachel Halliburton graduated in English and Classics from Cambridge.

As a journalist and the former Deputy Editor of Time Out she has interviewed notable people including Gorbachev, Yoko Ono and Kissinger for publications such as the Times, Financial Times, New Statesman, Spectator, Evening Standard and the Independent.

She lives in London.

Links-https://www.rachelhalliburton.net/

https://theartsdesk.com/books/order-write-my-book-i-had-kill-jane-austen

Twitter @Hallibee1

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