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  • Published: 18 September 2012
  • ISBN: 9780099526896
  • Imprint: Vintage
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 272
  • RRP: $32.99

Girl in a Green Gown

The History and Mystery of the Arnolfini Portrait




A fascinating exploration of one our best loved paintings, and the strange, dramatic history of its owners through time with a foreword by Grayson Perry.

WITH A FOREWORD BY GRAYSON PERRY

Carola Hicks sets out to solve the mystery of one of art history’s greatest paintings, The Arnolfini Portrait

The Arnolfini Portrait by Jan van Eyck in 1434 hangs in the National Gallery in London and remains a mystery to this day. Is the painting of the girl in the green gown the celebration of marriage or pregnancy, a memorial to a wife who died in childbirth, a fashion statement or a status symbol? Using her acclaimed forensic skills as an art historian, Carola Hicks set out to decode the mystery of one the most enigmatic paintings in the western art.

‘This book will send you back to the National Gallery with much sharper eyes’ Independent on Sunday

  • Published: 18 September 2012
  • ISBN: 9780099526896
  • Imprint: Vintage
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 272
  • RRP: $32.99

About the author

Carola Hicks

Carola Hicks, an acclaimed art historian, and witty, perceptive writer, died in 2010 just as she was finishing Girl in a Green Gown: The History and Mystery of the Arnolfini Portrait. Born in Sussex, Carola studied archaeology at Edinburgh University, and was an actress, journalist and House of Commons Researcher, before taking up an academic career. For several years she was curator of the Stained Glass Museum at Ely Cathedral, and then became a Fellow and Director of Studies in art history at Newnham College, Cambridge. Her books include Animals in Early Medieval Art, Improper Pursuits: The Scandalous Life of Lady Di Beauclerk, and two fine 'biographies' of works of art: The Bayeux Tapestry: The Life Story of a Masterpiece and The King's Glass: A Story of Tudor Power and Secret Art.

Also by Carola Hicks

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Praise for Girl in a Green Gown

Meticulously weaving an analysis of the portrait with chapters devoted to political and social history

Fisun Guner, Metro

An author who opens our eyes, deepens our understanding and makes us keen to look again

Frances Spalding, Daily Mail

This beautifully written book is a splendid testament to the intelligence, attention to detail, depth of research, and down to earth vision of a first rate scholar

Theodore K Rabb, Times Literary Supplement

Hicks tells a truly fascinating story about image and ownership, based on diligent, well-digested research

Vera Ryan, Irish Times

A brilliantly idiosyncratic investigation which alternates chapters internal to the picture (the fashions, the furniture, the oranges, the mirror) with chapters on its production and historical meanderings

Lynn Roberts, Tablet

There are still interesting things to be said about Van Eyck's great double portrait

Michael Glover, Independent, Books of the Year

Exploring the double-portrait image in often revelatory detail, Hicks presents a truly inspiring picture of her own

Erica Wagner, The Times, Books of the Year

Exploring the double portrait in revelatory detail, Hicks presents a truly inspiring picture of her own

The Times

I was bowled over... It is a book of page-turning vignettes

Daily Telegraph

Engaging

Gillian Tindal, Literary Review

Hicks writes effortlessly, with a vast amount of information at her fingertips

Jerry Brotton, BBC History Magazine

The book has sent me back to the painting...with wider and more inquisitive eyes

Peter Conrad, Observer

This impressive work of art historical scholarship is in every way as engaging as its subject

Peter Murray, Irish Examiner

No-one can write, and explain, like Hicks. Here her mastery is complete

Spectator