Chapter 1: The Vulnerables
Shipwreck, the Rescue — the painting introduces itself
My age-worn frame ached terribly. The continuous draft off the concrete floor curled upwards and over my straining fabric. With twisted sneers the motley crowd beneath me gawked unabashedly. “I don’t like the dark complexion… Not in my house—much too big.” Said another… “Too old and tired.”
Two hundred years earlier, a small boy named Billy Turner asked his father to hang more of his drawings in the wig shop. His mother was going mad. By 1802, at twenty-six, Billy would paint me—a storm-tossed vision born from domestic trauma and prodigious talent.
On the surface, life in the art world looks rosy. Some of Billy’s works have sold for many millions. Hold it right there—how would you like to learn the real truth of the matter?
This is an excerpt. Read the full chapter in Art World’s Dirty Little Secret.