Patricia Edwards's Reviews > Portrait of a Woman in White: A Novel

Portrait of a Woman in White by Susan Winkler is the story of a family of wealthy Jewish art collectors in Paris before, during and after WW2. The movie, Monuments Men, brought to my attention the story of how the Nazis systematically looted the art of Paris. Hermann Göring looted Paris to claim more art for his personal collection and this novel is told from the point of view of one young woman, Lili Rosenswig.

Lili’s mother posed for Matisse in his studio in a lovely white satin gown and the portrait hung in the family’s salon in a gilded wood frame. As the Rosenswigs prepared to flee France, ahead of the Nazis, they hid the Matisse at their relative’s country villa, planning to see it again soon. Instead, the family is betrayed, the portrait is seized by the Nazis along with most of their other valuables, and the novel details the reunion of the painting with the family in America and many years later. The bulk of the novel, however, is the telling of the families’ stories between the 1920s until 1963. It is a 5 star historical novel and written by a master story teller. The attention to historical detail is impeccable and the writing is beautifully descriptive, such as this example: “the hour of blue twilight, between daylight and darkness, is when everything felt otherworldly.”