The Painter's Daughters | Emily Howes

Historical fiction--can we ever get enough? This story is the fictionalized telling of the daughters of Thomas Gainborough, the renowned portrait artist of the 18th century. He had two daughters, Mary, called Moll or Molly, and Margaret, called Peggy. The sisters are inseparable, especially as Molly exhibits clear signs of mental illness and Peggy (and everyone else in the family) works to conceal it to maintain the social standing of the family and the marriage-ability of the girls. That's not the only secret of the family. Their very status-conscious mother, also named Margaret, who is the business brain of the Gainsborough painting enterprise, has a juicy one all her own which even the girls don't discover until later in life. Howes spools out this part of the story in a slow, effective way so we start to understand much earlier than the girls. Much of the action of the story takes place in Bath where anyone who was anyone came for the Season. It's an interesting view of Bath, and provides a kind of insider view of the surface treatment you get from a tour of the town. It was a cutthroat place, socially speaking, and the Gainsborough girls were in a precarious position with their father connected to (through commissions) the influencers of the day, but also very separate from them as a "tradesman."

The writing is strong. Howes is a psychotherapist and the narrative around Molly's mental illness feels genuine and accurate, as does that describing the emotional states of the family members who are trying to protect Molly and themselves. The book also gets complimentary blurbs from notable historical fiction authors Hilary Mantel and Tracy Chevalier.