Publishing date: 20.02.2025 (DD/MM/YYYY)
Thank you to NetGalley and Fairlight Books for the ARC. My opinions are my own.

TLDR: A man visits a painting every day and falls in love with the subject and the art itself. On the other side, the subject internally converses with her admirer and reflects on the time she was posing for said painting. 3 stars

An unnamed man visits a painting in his local museum every day. He falls in love with the painting, more specifically the subject. On the other side the subject converses with him, reflects on his affections, and wonders if he truly loves her. She also tells us of the time she was posing for the painting, and the relationship she had with the artist.

The characters here are deeply flawed and hypocritical. The men talk about love, but they love two people. The woman also speaks of love, but more superficially or like something she can use. No one was directly likeable or dislikeable, more like people I simply disagree with.

Pacing is strange. I have no concept of how much time has actually passed, or exactly when the different POV's take place. It is a slow paced book writing style-wise, but I think it is moving quickly timeline-wise.

The story itself is strange and obsessive. These people are all obsessed with each other, but the focus is mostly on the woman. So it is a character centric story. Not much happens, really.

I did not enjoy the way they talked about the woman. "Out of shape", "distant", they way they phrased whether or not she was pregnant. It felt icky. It felt like they viewed her as a lesser being.
The woman herself also has a few problems. A spine first of all would be nice. Something happens where she is disgusted, but does nothing. She seems so conflicted with the things she does and can't make up her mind properly. There is also a lot of flip-flopping of "loves me, loves me not". I found it a little tiring and juvenile.

The writing is beautiful, but maybe a little boring and "compact". Separating it a little more would make for a more comfortable reading experience. That might just be me.

Audience is adult. Targeted at people who enjoy themes of obsession, moral dilemmas, and a little surrealism.

I am giving this 3 stars. I enjoyed the premise, but not the execution. It was a little hard to read with the blocks of text on every page. But if it seems interesting I would recommend you try it.

Each day a man visits the Rijksmuseum to gaze at the painting Woman in Blue Reading a Letter by Vermeer. Only that painting, and for hours on end. Initially we don’t know quite why, and we’re not alone because the museum attendants wonder too. So does his wife. Does the model remind him of someone? Is it just a distraction from other aspects of his life? Is he seeking inspiration for a book? It did our author, after all.

The man’s fascination with the picture and the long hours he spends looking at it, observing it, wondering about small details in it – the significance of the map on the wall behind her or the box of pearls on the table – has an intensity to it, a meditative quality that draws you in. How often nowadays do we sit and look at anything for longer than a few minutes?

Gradually it becomes clear that it is the Woman in Blue who possesses most control over events and that this is not entirely coincidental. She is not the passive artist’s model we might have first thought. In the author’s imagination, her influence extends beyond the picture. She can sense the thoughts of the man viewing the picture, is amused by how often his ideas are wrong and luxuriates in her ability to captivate him as she has Vermeer. She even becomes a little impatient at his attempts to make sense of things in the painting, to discover the artist’s intentions. ‘Just look, like you did at the start,’ she says.’

The book explores the boundaries between reality and illusion in art. The man notes the Woman in Blue casts no shadow on the wall behind her as she would in real life. He recalls reading that in another of Vermeer’s paintings, View of Delft, he shifted buildings a little to suit his composition. The blue bedjacket the Woman in Blue is wearing gives the impression of a gently swollen belly but she is not pregnant. It is Vermeer who, at that moment, is in the process of bringing things into the world: a painting and a child by his wife.

We also see how a painting can live on in other forms, some quite crude or mundane. For example, the man notes that it’s possible to purchase a tea towel with the Woman in Blue on it in the museum gift shop although he’s perturbed that the blue is not exactly the same as that in the painting and fears it will fade after multiple washes.

For a short book, Woman in Blue contains a remarkable number of ideas and I suspect more will come to you, as they did to me, once you’ve finished reading it. Predictably, the book brought to mind Tracy Chevalier’s novel The Girl with the Pearl Earring, also inspired by a Vermeer painting. Playfully, the author has the man complain Vermeer has painted the Woman in Blue’s hair in such a way that it conceals her ear and that ‘had it not he might have painted a wonderful pearl earring there’.

In addition to its inclusion in the title, the author manages to sneak in a few more references to the colour blue. (I like to think this was for the amusement of those who’ve read Blue Postcards.) For example, the man writes a letter to the Woman in Blue on blue lined paper and is particular in using a blue pen. He buys his wife a blue Delft tile with a blue tulip on it.

Woman In Blue is a delightfully clever novel that will make you think about the relationship between artist, subject and viewer next time you visit a gallery or look at a painting.

‘That is what great art does: it allows the viewer in and the viewer brings something new to the painting, something of their own story and life and love.’

'The Woman in Blue' is a quietly fascinating novella inspired by Johannes Vermeer's 17th Century painting 'Woman in Blue Reading a Letter'. We alternate between the perspectives of a male writer who visits the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam every day to look at this painting, and Lieke, the woman in blue herself, who reflects on both her original painter and her present-day viewer.

The book is full of intriguing parallels: Vermeer and the writer both keep elements of their relationship with Lieke secret from their wives (and Lieke keeps secrets of her own), while the contents of the letter Lieke is reading remain a source of mystery. Through these two voices (and a prologue and an epilogue describing the artist's thoughts), Douglas Bruton invites us to reflect on the complex relationships that can exist between artist, subject and viewers, and the different forms that love and intimacy can take. It is also a novella which celebrates slow, careful attentiveness - after reading it, many readers will want nothing more than to go and sit in front of the same painting every day.

Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for sending me an ARC to review.

I really enjoyed this unusual book. Told from two different viewpoints one of which is a woman in a painting. This may seem a strange technique but it is one that really works. The book is even more intriguing as the painting actually exists!

Listen, shhhhh, slow down, take a breath, see, quiet..........................................

"You don't need to shout to be heard"

Bruton has the capacity of slowing down the mad gyrations of the world around us, getting us to focus on the moment and to look and furthermore to see. In this one he looks at Vermeer's ability to catch the moment and have us standing there looking at the moment, quietly, intensely, caught like a moth to a flame.

Looking is a complicated process, how to be able to see, we sometimes have to divest ourselves of all our filters and so catch that moment as it is and then at the same time wondering at all those filters we had to discard and examining once again if we need all of them or if we mix up our list of filters or do without some or add more.

Placing words to a moment confines the moment to those words when the moment was much more or much less or both at the same time or infinitesimal shades of more or less. So saying that reading this took me to a secret quiet place of hidden joy would be saying too much or at the same time too little.

Another Bruton than had me highlighting like mad. If it had been a paper book, it would have shone like a little sun with all the highlighting I did.

The Woman in Blue is a personal, poignant and reflective story about art and love.

This was the first work I’ve read by Bruton and I was captivated, finishing the book in one sitting. The story is beautifully told and intricate, with a powerful connection between the two protagonists, despite being centuries apart. Time becomes irrelevant as they watch each other and think, ponder and find their own way out of the moment in which they have connected.

There’s significant motifs and themes woven into the story, such as blue and the Mother Mary. These tie in with themes of adoration and worship, displayed by both Vermeer and the man in Amsterdam. The colour blue and gold bursts from the pages and becomes the tone of the novel.

This was deeply compelling and a beautifully told moment in time.

Thanks to NetGalley and Fairlight books for the ARC.

This novella explores the intimacy between the artist and his model as well as the one between the viewer of a painting and the painting itself. The painting in question is Vermeer’s Woman in Blue (1663, exhibited in Amsterdam’s Riksmuseum), over which an unnamed man starts obsessing. He visits the Woman in Blue every day and falls in love not just with the picture but with its very subject.

Alternating chapters create a kind of dialog between the Woman in Blue and her regular visitor: She reminisces about the time she was modelling for Vermeer but also engages directly with her daily caller who she suspects to be in love with her. He, on the other hand, finds new ways of intrigue and admiration every day, which result in an intimacy that can only be found between lovers.

The Woman in Blue – as a model for Vermeer and as the subject of a painting now exposed to the gaze of not only its creator but anyone, is somehow degraded to a mere object – so I quite like the idea that she becomes the active agent, building a relationship with the viewer. I also thought however, that it was a pity that she didn’t really have much to say and her dialog with him borders on dull. Her main concern centres around the question whether she is still being loved – yet the exploration of love remains very superficial. Mind you, I found the deliberations of her visitor even more lacklustre, if not banal.

Although I really liked the concept of the book, its execution didn’t really resonate with me.
I am grateful to NetGalley and Fairlight Books for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

The Woman in Blue is a study in patience of love and art. Like his previous novel, Blue Postcards, Bruton’s main theme in this slim novel focuses on how one piece of art, in this case, the painting of the Woman in Blue Reading a Letter by Vermeer, can elicit and offer something different to each viewer, and the viewer often finds himself ‘becoming one with the painting’.

This is something that happens to our man from Amsterdam, who finds himself transfixed by the painting located in the gallery of the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam. Daily, he visits the spot, often to the amusement and much talk of the security guards there, to find himself spellbound by the woman in the painting. Bruton’s description of the man’s adoration for the painting ranges from espousing the beauty of the colour and contrast, to the composition, to describing elements of the painting — the map on the wall, her blue bedjacket, the chairs, the box with the pearls half hidden, and the letter.

I found the passages where the man from Amsterdam drove himself to perplexity, unaware of what the contents of the letter were. Were they from her lover? What was written on it? Was it a new letter or an old one, if one judges by the creases on the letter. You can almost hear him pleading to the lady in the painting to answer them.

And, she does. Bruton’s book is set in two different timelines — the contemporary Amsterdam and then 17th century Delft, as the painting is being painted in real time, and also narrated by Angelieke, the lady in the painting. In the modern day, Angelieke is aware that she is a painting and that people fall in love with Vermeer’s version of her, and not her. She is conscious of the many eyes on her, especially of our man from Amsterdam, and finds him amusing.

The to-and-fro between these two narrators, as their stories unravel, almost parallel in complications of love; almost a dream-like state of revelation, where the intersection of the art, the artist, the muse, and the viewer revel in a state of adoration and vulnerability.

Bruton’s novel might be short, but there are layers in this book that slowly reveal themselves, a demonstration of his prowess of showing how experiencing art can sometimes help us achieve the closure we need, just like our man in Amsterdam, who finds his past and present love in the face of Angelieke, as Angelieke reminisces about her intense period with Vermeer, learning that a muse and lover aren’t intertwined.

My only fault with this novel was through the halfway mark, where I felt the story had reached its crescendo, and now we were waiting for events to unfold, but had to wait. The animation of being, the absence of movements in the chapters instead of drawing one away from the story, draws one in…it is almost like that early morning dream, where you know you are aware that you are dreaming, and yet, you don’t want it to end.

The book is a mastery in showing how art can and will elicit a response that is sometime so emotional and visceral, that it can force one to turn on themselves.

Thank you to NetGalley and Fairlight Books for the ARC.

Enjoyed this much more than I thought I would. Written very nicely and the characters were well fleshed out.

There’s clearly something about the paintings of Johannes Vermeer that inspires novelists; first, Tracy Chevalier’s Girl With a Pearl Earring and now Douglas Bruton’s excellent Woman in Blue. This is the second of Bruton’s books I’ve read, the first being 2021’s Blue Postcards and apart from the shared word in the title (Bruton certainly seems to like the colour blue!) and the shared theme of art and artists, I found this one very different in style and structure.

The novel begins in the present day with our unnamed narrator, referred to only as ‘a man in Amsterdam’, visiting the Rijksmuseum to look at a painting. Just one painting, which he has become so obsessed with that he barely notices any of the others. The painting is Vermeer’s Woman in Blue Reading a Letter and the narrator returns to the museum day after day to study the colours and the composition, but most of all just to spend time in the woman in blue’s company and to imagine the human being who inspired the picture. He’s transfixed by this particular painting for its own sake, but also because the woman reminds him in subtle ways of both his wife and another woman he once loved.

In 17th century Delft, we meet the woman in blue herself – or rather, the young woman who sits for Vermeer as he paints her portrait. Her chapters alternate with the present day ones, slowly building up a history of the woman in blue, her life in Delft and her relationship with the artist. In reality, the true identity of the sitter has never been confirmed (Vermeer’s wife, Catharina Bolnes, has been suggested as a likely candidate, but it seems there’s no actual evidence to prove it), so Bruton has the freedom to create his own fictional story for the woman, whom he names Angelieke.

Although the book is set in two different time periods and narrated by two different characters, the lines dividing the two are blurred. Angelieke is a real woman in 1663, but in the modern day sections, she’s aware that she is a painting in a museum and that the male narrator comes to see her every day. She looks forward to his visits and feels a connection with him, just as he feels one with her. This is not the first novel to give a painting a mind of its own (I, Mona Lisa by Natasha Solomons does the same and I’m sure there must be others) but I really liked the way Bruton handles that element of the story, giving it a dreamlike feel and merging the two narratives so that they don’t feel too separate or disconnected.

With it being a real painting rather than a fictional one, it’s easy to google it so you can refer to the picture itself as you read. The narrator’s observations, made during his repeated viewings, helped me to see things in the painting that I probably wouldn’t have noticed for myself. With each chapter, he finds new details to study and focus on – the map on the wall, the letter in the woman’s hand, the blue bed jacket she’s wearing and the question of whether or not she could be pregnant. At times, Bruton returns to a theme he also touched on in Blue Postcards: the idea that a painting offers something different to each individual who views it and that the viewers themselves can almost ‘become’ part of the painting:

"What I like about the painting – one of the many things I like – is how cleverly the artist has included me in it and made me complicit in the looking. It is an intimate and private moment and Vermeer intrudes on it without at all breaking it, and we – Vermeer and me – stand silent, breath held, just looking at this young woman turned in on herself."

For a short book – a novella at 144 pages – there’s so much packed into it that I’ve probably only scratched the surface in this review. I would recommend Woman in Blue to anyone who loves art, but even if you don’t, there’s still a lot here to enjoy.

This book is a quiet novella focused on one single painting by Dutch Golden Age painter, Johannes Vermeer, displayed at the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam. Wikipedia tells me that it has been painted around 1662 or 1665, which confirms that not much is known for sure about this painting, and even less about this young woman dressed in a wide blue mantle. Vermeer has always had a mysterious reputation, and his paintings are contemplative, no wonder that a writer would imagine a whole story based on this painting!

It’s not the first time that a Vermeer painting is the central material for a novel. The bestselling Girl with the Pearl Earring by Tracy Chevalier, published in 1999 (!) was also imagining the story of the woman whose image we are so familiar with, but without any other information. So what’s different about this one?

The chapters alternate between the visitor, an unnamed male writer who comes to the museum daily to look at this picture, and the woman in blue. She is both of her time and within the painting, aware of the interest she creates by the museum visitors. That little touch of magical realism creates a memorable impression on the reader. It’s a bit like in Harry Potter when the characters in the paintings in the hallways can interact with the people passing by.

The writer falls in love more and more with her at each visit. She, on the other hand, tells how she met the painter who offered to paint her. She is young but not naive. She has her own personality and intentions. She observes Vermeer as much as he looks at her.

I have a few minor reservations about the story, one being that the intense relationship between Vermeer and the young woman develops while his wife is pregnant, which seems all too convenient; and the second one about the ending of the 17th century story, which adds a twist that doesn’t really bring anything to the core story.

People who will read it will understand my allusions (and maybe disagree with me) but those reservations haven’t spoilt my reading experience, by far. On the contrary, I hope that a lot of people will read the story!

Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley. I received a free copy of this book for review consideration.

Beautiful.

I should just leave my review there because there's really not much else I can say.

Woman in Blue centres around a writer who has become besotted with the painting by Vermeer. He visits her in the Rijksmuseum every day, falling in love little more each time.

The other strand is the story of Angelieke (who is a fiction of the writer's mind), the woman in the painting. She lives with her mother and another young woman called Katrijn. She and Katrijn plan for her to meet Vermeer and become his latest muse.

The woman in the painting not only has a dialogue with Vermeer but also with the writer who visits her daily.

I'm not going to be able to do this book justice. It has the same quiet beauty as the painting itself. The writing is exquisite. I read this book in two sittings. I did not want to put it down. I want to read it again immediately.

It is stunningly simple and I can't praise it highly enough. Very highly recommended.

Many thanks to Netgalley and Fairlight Books for the advance review copy. Very much appreciated. I want to read everything this author has written.

An interesting novella with a premise I have not seen before but adored here. A charming and quick read.

The premise of the book—a conversation between a man and a painting—struck me as incredibly intriguing. However, I found it difficult to stay engaged. While the writing was undeniably beautiful, with themes of love, the enduring emotional impact of art, creativity, and intimacy, I personally struggled to connect with the story. Despite the book's relatively short length, more novella than a full-length novel, I found myself slogging through it by the midway point. Some of the developments felt a bit predictable and formulaic, though I recognize that this may not be the case for everyone. Unfortunately this one did not do it for me, but there are many other raving reviews so I'd give it a try if the premise intrigues you!

Thank you to NetGalley and Fairlight Books for an ARC!

This is a fascinating little novella, essentially consisting of alternating chapters: a man musing about his life, love, and a little bit of art while looking at the painting “Woman in Blue Reading a Letter” by Vermeer at the Rijksmuseum, and the same woman (a girl, really) musing about him and how “she” came to be.

It doesn’t sound like much, but it was hard to put down, and I was totally engrossed in the story/stories. This little novella will make you slow down and reflect on many nuances of life.

I wonder, was it necessary to insert an LGBTQ angle into this tender little story - did it add to the story, or was it simply done to tick the zeitgeist box) And one other question bothers me: Why didn’t editors pick up on this: a woman “in the first months of her pregnancy” is referred to as “out of shape and distant”. Distant? Okay… But out of shape?!

3.5 starts. With many thanks to the publisher.

[this review contains spoilers that cannot be formatted out in netgalley, so please be warned fellow users]

the premise was so exciting. conversations between an observer and a painting? sign me up!

Woman in Blue delivered that promise. but i was not a fan of the execution.

i was expecting something in the style of The Picture of Dorian Gray, with combined ruminations on philosophy and art. but instead, after finishing the book, i was reminded of the second act of The Vegetarian by Han Kang—a disturbing portrayal of men using women for art, the women having superficial agency in the matter, and men's hypocrisy towards their wives.

the writing had so much potential. the descriptions were strong. there were a few gems here and there about the relationship between ideas and their execution. but everything else was kept surface-level. instead of exploring something further, it was repeated over and over without anything new <spoiler>(e.g. every time his wife asked him if he was writing, he kept mentioning how writers don't share their ideas and never went beyond that statement) </spoiler> . speaking of repetition, the word "love" is so overused, it lost whatever meaning it had.

the female characters were my least favourite part of the book. the twist at the end did little to repair the damage for me. they had no story or nuance and were passive tools in the life of the men. this could've easily been fixed by showing what they do every day outside of their discussions about the painter and the painting. it's a stereotypical set: <spoiler>boring or pregnant wives, superficially naive and pure maidens that are worshipped by the bored husbands</spoiler>. there is a minor attempt at subverting this, but that too is surface-level.

<spoiler> the assault was handled too passively. nobody stopped anyone. nothing went on in the head of the woman even though she was disgusted. </spoiler>

the historical context was lacking. i get that the focus was on the painter and his work, but nowhere were there any suggestions in his mannerisms about the life of that century. it might as well had not been a time jump at all. <spoiler> the incessant use of "he loves me, he loves me not" also added to this problem </spoiler> . it stuck out like a sore thumb in the deeply reflective atmosphere of the book and whatever gap between the past and present it was meant to bridge was lost for me.

<spoiler> the reconciliation was abrupt and unnatural. the men freely cheated on their wives (who remained naive and passive as ever) and the change in their thoughts (brought by the influence of the art and their understanding of it) was unbelievable. </spoiler>

<spoiler> also, the constant speculation about whether the woman was pregnant or not made me uncomfortable. it's a valid observation that did not need to be stretched so far. the line that goes "her delicate fingers show that she could not be pregnant" is insensitive and out of touch, but hey, that's a man's pov for ya. </spoiler>

overall, a miss for me.

Meditation upon Woman In Blue Reading a Letter, by Johannes Vermeer

This short book made my heart yearn so much for something I couldn’t even name. Perhaps just for the very preciousness and intensity of every present moment, and wanting to hold each moment fast, drinking it in, truly noticing.

In many ways that IS one of the numinous themes. This is a very short, remarkably easy read, but it is absolutely one to savour, linger, and not to rush over. Its quality is one of attentiveness, presence, reflection and intense waiting for revelation

The subject is both a painting – Vermeer’s Woman In Blue, and the very power of art to take us into deeper experience than we know

There are two narrators in the book. One is the model herself, and the experience she has of being painted, her relationship with the artist, and his relationship with his art, his life and vision, and her.

The second narrator is a writer in the present day, who visits the Rijksmuseum where the painting hangs, every day. He is obsessed by the painting itself, the model, and the whole quality and energy, which goes well beyond the technicalities and analysis of the artist’s world. Surely, what we, the viewer, pick up from great art is something indefinable about the essence of the time and place and personality of artist, subject and the space between them.

Bruton takes this into the presence and personality of the woman herself, imagining how her quality, her being, her individuality somehow reaches into the present, so, just as we invest and sense into the life of the model, so she can sense into, and make judgements about those who hold her in their gaze.

So……….Bruton is making the reader think about how much we create the works of art we look upon, the books we read. We do not purely passively receive we invest them with our own meaning. And I guess the best works of art, the best writing, allows the viewer, the reader the space for their own soul to give and receive to and from the artwork.

And, most of all, we are made to think about love, in all of its complexity, and all of its innocence

I’m surprised and stunned by this book. I did not expect to be so wonderfully overwhelmed by something so very gentle and patient.

I’m delighted to find Douglas Bruton has many books to his name, and I will have more to explore

This is a very cleverly constructed book, beautifully written. Very evocative and poignant, delving into the meaning of love, guilt and thought. The story of Vermeer has been told in many ways, but this is unique in my experience. The ending is something of a surprise and very satisfying - so often not the case and particularly to be applauded in such a short work. I absolutely loved this book and can’t recommend it highly enough.

Johannes Vermeer's most acclaimed painting is widely considered to be “Girl with a Pearl Earring”. Often referred to as the “Mona Lisa of the North”. Another highly acclaimed Vermeer painting is “The Milkmaid”. However the main protagonist in this read is a man who becomes obsessed with the painting of “Woman Reading a Letter”. He visits the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam every day while his wife is at work and with his constant visits causes some concern amongst security and other museum staff; so in order to put their concerns to rest he begins taking notes. He is so obsessed with this young woman in the blue smock, or is it a bed jacket? To some women it could be described as a maternity over jacket that until only in the past fifty years would have been the mode of dress for pregnant women. He whispers to the young woman in the painting, he leans too close, almost touching the artwork, returning every day to almost repeat every gesture as well as removing his wedding ring. He reveals some of this to his wife including some past interaction by her that was part of the attraction.

The other protagonist takes the reader to the time of the painting where the young beautiful woman, of an impoverished and simple background has become a model for an artist. She lives with her mother and a friend but from whom the real relationship to the friend is not apparent. However, as the artwork progresses she begins to reveal her intentions. As is the case with continuous births of the times, the artist's wife is about to give birth to another child. With the artist's sexual desires deprived, the opportunity for the young model is ripe for her picking and so she does.
I received an ARC of this book for my comments and thoughts, many thanks to Netgalley and the Publishers. I have added my review to Goodreads.

• after stumbling upon Vermeer’s painting ‘Woman in Blue Reading a Letter’ in the Rijksmuseum of Amsterdam, a man returns each day to look at the painting in a newfound obsession with her & her story contained within.
• simultaneously, we learn the story of the woman in the painting & her life in the 1600s when the piece was created. or maybe the story is the one the man is telling to himself?
• blending truth & fiction, this is a gentle story of art & how we interact with it, and the effect it can have on the viewer & subject. this was the perfect, slightly introspective novel to close the year with, and one i hope to revisit in the future.