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The Vanishing Man

In Pursuit of Velazquez

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The Vanishing Man

By: Laura Cumming
Narrated by: Siobhan Redmond
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About this listen

*BBC Radio 4 Book of the Week*

*Shortlisted for the Baillie Gifford Prize 2016*

"The Vanishing Man is a riveting detective story and a brilliant reconstruction of an art controversy, but it is also a homage to the art of Velázquez, written by a critic who remains spellbound by his genius, as readers will be spellbound by this book" - Colm Tóibín

In 1845, a Reading bookseller named John Snare came across the dirt-blackened portrait of a prince at a country house auction. Suspecting that it might be a long-lost Velázquez, he bought the picture and set out to discover its strange history. When Laura Cumming stumbled on a startling trial involving John Snare, it sent her on a search of her own. At first she was pursuing the picture, and the life and work of the elusive painter, but then she found herself following the bookseller’s fortunes too – from London to Edinburgh to nineteenth-century New York, from fame to ruin and exile.

An innovative fusion of detection and biography, this book shows how and why great works of art can affect us, even to the point of mania. And on the trail of John Snare, Cumming makes a surprising discovery of her own. But most movingly, The Vanishing Man is an eloquent and passionate homage to the Spanish master Velázquez, bringing us closer to the creation and appreciation of his works than ever before.

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Critic Reviews

The Vanishing Man is a riveting detective story and a brilliant reconstruction of an art controversy, but it is also a homage to the art of Velázquez, written by a critic who remains spellbound by his genius, as readers will be spellbound by this book (Colm Tóibín)
Sumptuous...A gleaming work of someone at the peak of her craft
An extraordinary story ... This terrific book is many things, a study in obsession, a paean of praise to an artist of genius, a detective story and, for the author, an exorcism of grief. Writing like Helen Macdonald in H is for Hawk, in the wake of the death of her father, Cumming pours heart and soul in The Vanishing Man and she has produced something of which her artist father, James Cumming, would be more than proud
Laura Cumming twists several genres around her supple fingers in order to tell the extraordinary story of how Snare fell under the spell of a painting and sacrificed everything - prosperity, reputation, a respectable death surrounded by loving family - so that he might live with it like a love ... The detective story [...] gusts the plot along at a cracking pace... You put down The Vanishing Man not quite sure how Cumming has been able to bring off this particular magic trick, but happy and grateful that she has.
In this superb and original book, Cumming interweaves the gripping story of Snare with that of Diego Velázquez himself, painting at the court in Madrid in the 17th century.. Like Donna Tartt's novel The Goldfinch, this is about the particular forms of obsession that only art can generate... This enthralling book is about what it means to create art so luminous that others would fight just to get close to it
This is an absorbing dual biography inspired by the author's passion for Velázquez... Cumming brings her subject alive and writes with empathy and insight
A real-life detective story involving an Old Master portrait of an ill-fated English king and an art obsession that would lead to the ruin of one of the book's two mysterious protagonists: one a humble 19th-century printer and bookseller from Reading, John Snare; the other the great 17th-century Spanish court painter named in the title ... Interwoven into the narrative of Snare's tribulations, and of beautifully compelling accounts of Velázquez's paintings, are moving snippets of biography that reveal Cumming's own relationship to the great Spanish master
Simultaneously art historian and detective, Cumming skilfully weaves together the lives not only of Velázquez and Snare, but also of the ill-fated king and of the man who unknowingly sparked her interest in the Spanish artist — her late father, the painter James Cumming. (Anna Godfrey)
Ingenious... intriguing... [Cumming] subtly interweaves the two narratives - that of Snare and that of Velázquez - so that they illuminate each other in surprising ways. (Mark Hudson)
All stars
Most relevant
This is an ode to Velazquez's genius of painting. The author writes impassioned admirations for his works so elegantly and touchingly that one can almost 'see' the paintings she's describing.
It's also a story of John Snare, a bookseller in Reading.... It can be read as an detective story.
She cleverly intertwines two different lives together which revolve around a portrait of King Charles I....
It's a fascinating true story. I like it a lot.
And the way it was narrated... one of the best performances I've come across from Audible.
Thank you for producing this audiobook.

Great story beautifully written, brilliantly read

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