Abstract
Julian Barnes Jonathan Cape , 2019 , HB, 280 pp, £20.00 , 978-1787332164 This biographical account of the famous doctor in the life-size picture produced at the time of the Belle Epoque in France (1871–1914), is a tour de force by Julian Barnes. The oil painting in ravishing red hues by John Singer Sargent celebrates a young surgeon who is going places and knows his mind. The scarlet cloak with dangling tassel and delicate doctor’s hands with assured visage was deemed too scandalous to exhibit in France. Perhaps this was due to the fact he was a very successful gynaecologist (and womaniser who is presumed to have slept with some of his celebrity patients) or perhaps because he was from Jewish Protestant Italian parentage. This did not sit well with Catholic aristocratic France. …
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