Blazing with colour, texture, deep characterisation and strong narrative

This book is, astonishingly a debut novel. Nothing in its writing indicates that. On finishing this completely immersive and beautifully charged novel, I went to search Steeds’ back catalogue. There isn’t one.

The Artist is set primarily over the summer of 1920, inProvence, with two book end sections in 1957, which both prepare us for (the opening section) to a mystery, suggesting we should possibly expect something beneath the surfaces of what we think we are seeing, and (the end section) the probable outcome of the story which we leave, at summer’s end, 1920.

Edouard Tartuffe is a reclusive, mysterious, brilliant and trailblazing painter. For reasons which will unfold, he left Paris when his star was rising, some 30 years ago. Obsessive, autocratic and demanding, he lives alone with his niece, Ettie. Ettie’s role is to completely service Tartuffe’s needs. She is housekeeper, cleaner, cook and also artist’s lowly assistant – not to have any hand in creative work herself, but as the one who cleans the brushes, sets out the paints, and does any drudgery needed so that the great man never has to think about mundane tasks.

Ettie, though outwardly passive, patient, subservient, has fierce artistic ambitions of her own, but, in a man’s world, there is little room for the female vision to be taken seriously, or even, taken at all.

So…there is clearly still topicality here, however far we may like to think we have come….

The third figure is Joseph, A young Englishman who himself had a desire to be an artist, against the wishes of his father. Joseph was enrolled at the Slade, but left, under some kind of cloud. He has found, however, a skill with words, specifically in writing about art. He has a commission to interview Tartuffe.

What else, other than art itself and our three central characters, is a major theme, is the still shattering effects of that major 4 year war, and the lives it destroyed, and changed, for good or for ill. And this is also a journey of desire, particularly female desire. The desire explored goes far beyond that for physical connection, but is for a life writ larger than society allows

Steed’s writing is superlative, most particularly in the fact that she succeeds in creating the artworks being painted in this novel, by words alone. Tartuffe and his paintings are imagined, though the reader will see them in their mind’s eye. The style of his work made me think a lot of Soutine, particularly in his fascination with the shapes and textures of decaying food.

Recommended without reservation. I was privileged to read this as an ARC, but will be buying this for various book loving, art loving friends

I adored this book! It has a charm about it that is hard to put into words but as soon as I started reading it I just knew… This book has managed to capture something special. I fell in love with the people, the time, the place, everything! The characters are all so real that you just want to be with them making it compulsive reading but at the same time you really don’t want it to end either. This is a brilliant historical novel that I will happily tell everyone about.

Told from the point of view of Ettie and Joseph this is a slow burning love story. The novel reveals the oppressive atmosphere at the cottage where they are both at the beck and call of Tartuffe, the manipulative artist, Ettie's uncle. The story of Ettie's childhood was very poignant and the description of her life very sad. A good first novel although I would have liked to see more resolution between the characters at the end.
Thank you to Net Galley and John Murray Press for the advance copy of this book.

This is the story of three people. Failed artist and aspiring art journalist Joseph and Sylvette ‘Ettie’ the niece and housekeeper for her uncle the famous and reclusive artist Edouard Tartuffe. The book opens in London in 1957 where an unknown woman is viewing a painting called The Feast by Edouard Tartuffe. Then we go back to 1920, set in Saint-Auguste-de-Provence, when Joseph first arrives to meet Tartuffe hoping to get an exclusive story for his newspaper.

Briefly, Joseph doesn’t get the welcome he expected. Tartuffe is rude and largely uncommunicative but he does eventually agree to Joseph staying if he will sit for him. Ettie is also quiet, having lived her life, since her mother left, as an unpaid assistant to the artist and also his housekeeper, cook and secretary dealing with every aspect of his life. But as a friendship, and maybe more, grows between Joseph and Ettie long hidden secrets begin to emerge.

Told from the POV’s of Ettie and Joseph the book is split into three parts, The Painter, The Writer, and The Forger, and it was at that point the artists name (if you know your Moliere) made sense! There is a lot of sadness in this book, I was particularly moved by Ettie’s childhood and her being forced to grow up much quicker than she should have and the overriding sense of loneliness. There are some unexpected reveals, although not massive shocks as there were hints leading there, as the book reaches the end and a feeling that some happiness was grasped at last. Beautifully written this is a deep and evocative story and a very enjoyable read. 4.5⭐️

I loved this book. It’s beautiful, luminous and the writing is evocatively crafted. Like Provence, where it takes place, the novel is full of life, light, passion and captures even the scent and dust of a hot summer.

Young British journalist Joseph travels to the south of France to interview the reclusive and tyrannically aging artist Tartuffe. What Joseph doesn’t expect is to meet Ettie, the artist's niece who is treated nearly as a slave by her dominant uncle. As the heat of summer grows and pressure builds passion alights burning secrets long held.

The chapters alternate between Joseph and Ettie. At first I thought this was going to be Joseph's story, but really it’s Ettie’s story that lights the way.
I won’t say anything more other than to highly recommend reading this beautiful novel. It will linger in your heart for days and weeks after.

My thanks to John Murray Press and NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I was sent an advance copy of The Artist by Lucy Steeds to read and review by NetGalley. I absolutely adored this book! A fabulous cast of very believable characters in an equally fabulous setting. The author’s wonderful prose just carries you along in the vivid and amazing story of the senses with colour at its core. A must read for anyone who loves historical fiction and especially art! More than the maximum 5 stars needed for this one! Perfect!

This is an outstanding and charming book that totally absorbs you n the narrative, from the scenery to the characters to the motivations, I was completely hooked from start to finish.

Joseph is a failed art student and grieving brother of a man who went to war but never really came back. His disillusion after the war leads him to escape to France, where he becomes transfixed by the older, arrogant and reclusive painter Tartuffe. He also becomes mesmerised by Tartuffe's niece Ettie, who when he meets here is the housekeeper, cook and secretary of her gruff uncle.

There is so much to unpack in this book, from the characters, their histories and relations, to the lavish descriptions of the food, the local market and the beautiful French countryside.. But for me the real start of the show is Ettie, as she is gradually revealed to Joseph and to us from near invisibility to blinding light. Wonderful.

Provance, 1920, and the reclusive Eduardo Tartuffe, a renowned artist for his work lives in a house in the south of France with his niece Ettie who keeps house for him, cleaning up his mess and helping with the commissions ordering the canvases and getting everything for his work

The young and ambitious Josep, a Journalist, is driven to try to get an interview from Eduardo. The tables turn as he becomes the muse so that Eduardo can paint him.

The story is set in a remote house in Provence, where the three characters live. Ettie wants out, and Joseph wants into the artist's life

A compelling reading and great descriptive writing regarding the place and the life in Provance

Highly recommended reading i loved this book and it is five stars.

Brilliant. I was immediately drawn in and read it every moment I could. The story was well told and very engaging and beautifully written with lovely description of food, art and the Provençal area. This is a story of being hidden in plain sight, of women being denied autonomy and of men destroyed by war. I was interested to see the descriptions of both sides of world war 1, one who was destroyed and one who flourished.


This novel is a masterpiece.

If January starts with such a brilliant book then I am hoping that all of 2025 will be an amazing reading year.

I fell in love with all the main characters in this book, even the irascible Tata. The writing was so vivid that I could feel the heat of the French summer and smell all of the food that was being painted. The art was described so vividly that I thought this was a book fictionalising a 'real' artist and was already half planning a trip to the National Gallery.
I very much liked how the trauma of WW1 was woven into the book, and how the bravery of all the characters involved was showcased. It was also refreshing that the book ended before the 2nd world war and the occupation of France, the tight timeline really worked for me.

With thanks to NetGalley and John Murray Press for the advanced copy to review.

Historical fiction isn’t usually my thing, but the description of this book and the cover drew me in.

Let me firstly say the writing is exquisite, so many gorgeous descriptions that completely transport you into the world the author is building.

The story was captivating, at first I thought it would be a run of the mill love story but the journey we’re taken on is truly representative of every woman who’s ever had to suppress a part of herself for someone else.


A beautiful novel that I really enjoyed, and an absolute masterclass in writing.

A really compelling historical character focused novel that hooks you throughout. The story is from the points of view of Joseph and Ettie, and the artist Tata who connects them. I liked how the points of view keep flitting between the two as it keeps some pace to the book. The book is set just after the First World War in the south of France over one summer and you can really feel the heat and tension build throughout. I really enjoyed it and found myself gripped by the story. Would highly recommend to anyone who enjoys history or art, but also to people who like a character study.

1920 Provence and Joseph, a young art columnist from England arrives at the home of reclusive artist Edouard Tartuffe, thinking he’s been granted an interview. He finds a grumpy, white bearded eccentric who is not happy to see him, and his shy young niece Ettie who he depends upon.

So you may be thinking, is this one of those novels? Is our wrong heroine going to be rescued from her claustrophobic life? Well let me tell you, young Ettie does not need rescuing and (no spoilers here) she’s found a way to show the world her talents.

The characters in this debut - Joseph, Tartuffe and Ettie - are so exquisitely drawn, and the back stories are wonderful. However Ettie is the star of the show. The art, the food, the descriptions- it’s all so vivid. A book hasn’t moved me this much in a long time. If you loved Sarah Winman’s Still Life, I think you’ll love this. It may be half the length, but boy does it pack a punch.

Beautiful, tense, sensuous, edible, enthralling, and mind-opening. This was absolutely delicious and delicately poignant at the same time, from the simmering descriptions of Southern France to the tender exploration of hearts and minds in the aftermath of World War I. With a twisty, gripping story and a spiky but fascinating heroine, it's a page turner that also gives you time to think new thoughts: about who really makes art, about how women are forced to occupy unexpected spaces, and about freedom. Thanks to Netgalley and John Murray for an eARC. Can't wait to get my hands on a physical copy.

The story of The Artist is in fact two stories. The first is told from Joseph's perspective. The second from Ettie's.

Joseph is a failed art student turned art journalist and Ettie is a woman who has been denied attending art school by her artist uncle who claims that women are not allowed to learn at the académie. Instead, her uncle, Tartuffe (Tata) keeps her trapped in their secluded house by emotionally manipulating her and she becomes a sort of living background to his artistic endeavours when she is the one who makes his art possible. She orders the supplies, she buys the food, she commissions the frames and she is the one that invites Joseph to their house in the Provance.

And while Joseph gets painted by the great Tartuffe and tries to gain insight into the master to finish an article about him, a tender love story develops between himself and Ettie. Joseph learns to reassess the quiet woman until he sees her for who she truly is. And Ettie is far more than she appears to be.

Thanks for the advance copy!

P.S.: I am sure a lot of people will like the story, but I grew up in a family with artists and didn't quite connect with Tata or Ettie the way I would have liked to. They aren't nearly "eccentric" enough if that makes sense. Or maybe my family is too eccentric. Either way, there was a disconnect there that I couldn't overcome.

Compelling and alluring, Steed’s debut novel is a sensory delight. She adds layers of richness to her prose weaving a narrative that is so steeped in colours, textures, and the complex emotions that whirl within the three main characters.

Spilt in over three parts — The Painter, The Writer, and The Forger, the story is told by the alternative voices of Joseph and Ettie open up the conversation of what is an artist and does the hand that created the mesmerising stroke on the canvas matter more if it is by a renowned painter or an unknown one?

Edouard Tartuffe is the reclusive successful painter who lives with his niece, Ettie in a dilapidated farmhouse in Provence. Uncle and niece live in companionable silence; he paints and suns himself while eating honey, and she works as his assistant, housekeeper, cook, cleaner, correspondent, and more. The loud silence is broken when Joseph, a writer finds himself, covered in dust and sweat at the door of their farmhouse, uncertain of his welcome despite a letter inviting him so.

Thus begins the torrid summer of simmering discoveries and realisations as they circle around each other, building up to an intoxicating climax of re-learning what truly is creativity, possession, and freedom.

Steeds’ prose is so rich, that one can imagine the heat of the summer — ‘Each day is hotter than the last, the air so thick Joseph wants to chew it’, the painful loneliness and helplessness of Sylvette — ‘She was a small, lonely child, and having no real power would let her to invent her own power. It was the power of mud potions, and silent incantations and touching things with her hands’ and the artistry of descriptions — ‘He throws the ink pen and one hundred black exclamation marks spatter across the floor’

There is of course the supplementary developing plot of a mystery or two, and Steeds excels at tying it with the main narrative, never not missing a line nor pushing us to guess at it. Instead, she slowly guides us through its eventual outcome and the result is more of a satisfied smile than a loud “Aha!”

Something I felt when I turned the last page on Sylvette’s story, because it is after all her story even though it begins with Joseph wanting to profile Edouard, the artist.

Thank you to NetGalley and John Murray Press for providing me with an ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Lucy Steeds opens The Artist with a dynamite prologue. In just a couple of pages, we are shown in a public gallery, a grand painting and the person who claims to have destroyed it over 30 years before. From there we are taken to the baking heat of Provence in 1920. Joseph, an aspiring English journalist, has pinned all his hopes on interviewing the reclusive, misanthropic tyrant of an artist Tartuffe whose niece Ettie keeps house and facilitates his work. He paints in the studio but she cleans it, supplies it, prepares canvases, commissions frames; she is forever clearing up his mess and she is always watching. The price of living with a genius is high. His fragile ego will not accept competition.
I really liked the set-up of the three characters living in the house together over a stifling summer. Into this uneasy coexistence in the middle of nowhere come crashing uninvited guests (in a yellow car; a nice touch). After this injection of the outside world and a small bombshell of information, Ettie wonders what else her uncle has lied to her about. Things are revealed in their own time; some expected, some not. Through the person of Joseph’s brother Rupert, the fallout from the Great War is shown vividly, compassionately.
I have enjoyed novels based on real subjects like this before, but I do have a tendency to get sidetracked and find out which parts really happened and which are fiction. As Lucy Steeds has invented the main characters here, albeit placing them in a world of real people and places, I was able to take it all at face value and enjoy it for itself. Along the way she writes beautifully about art, how it makes the viewer feel rather than what it means.

Thank you to John Murray, publisher and NetGalley for an advance copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. Honestly - I loved it!
I have an amateur interest in art and artists, so the core story of reclusive artist Edouard Tartuffe and the mystery and secretiveness around why he became so intrigued me. I really enjoyed the exploration of the creative forces inspiring the artist, as journalist Joseph attempts to understand this. The character Ettie, Edouard’s niece seems simply portrayed initially, then one begins to wonder if there is more to her than meets the eye. I found the novel to be a very ‘gentle’ read, it flowed nicely with a satisfying amount of intrigue and mystery. I very strongly disliked Edouard, really liked Joseph and his naivety, and felt a bit disconnected from Ettie - I think it a sign of a very good novel when I react to characters in an evolving way. I highly recommend this book. I’ll look out for more from this author.

A wholly complete, engaging and satisfying story of a hot summer in France when 3 people are tied together in an isolated farmhouse soon after the first world War. The artist, genius and monster; the shadowy niece who attends to all the artist's needs sublimating her own and the young art critic and model for a painting who has his own demons. This is a beautiful, surprising, passionate tale and an ending that fits.

I absolutely loved this book. Beautifully written, it slowly unfolded until I was engrossed, impatient to see how it all played out.
Joseph, a writer, is sent from London to discover the secrets of the famous artist Tartuffe, who lives a reclusive life in the south of France. However, it soon becomes clear that his niece, Ettie, is the real person of interest and the story is hers. The reader gradually learns her history, her secrets and her desires in this compelling novel.
The sense of place, time, atmosphere and landscape were all brilliantly evoked, and I was drawn into Ettie's world, thoroughly invested in her story.
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an advance copy.