The Painter's Daughters by Emily Howes, an enthralling drama of sisterly devotion and deception in 18th-century England, introduces readers to Molly and Peggy Gainsborough, the children of British artist Thomas Gainsborough. The two are the subjects of his magnificent portrait The Painter's Daughters Chasing a Butterfly, displayed at the National Gallery in London.
As young girls, the sisters grow up in the Suffolk countryside. Howes skillfully captures the natural wonderment of their early years and the shiny patina of a childhood in which they are gazed upon by their father's clients. His paintbrush presents their immaculate images, but the sisters are a far cry from their artistically rendered perfection. The sisters' lives are defined by one dreadful, all-consuming secret: Molly is mentally unstable, and Polly must do all she can to cover up for her, lest she be dragged away to "Bedlam."
Peggy continues to secretly mitigate Molly's increasingly erratic behavior, even when they move to the fashionable city of Bath and enter high society as young women, but it's only a matter of time before the irresistible promise of romance pierces their small circle. This rupture tests the sisters' loyalty to one another and leads to a devastating betrayal.
Howes weaves a second narrative through the main drama, one that alludes to the mysterious noble lineage of their mother, the story of an innkeeper's daughter and her illegitimate child. This artistically inspired debut novel is faithful to the factual details of the Gainsborough sisters' lives while deploying seductive literary embellishments to fill in for the unknowable gaps in their family history. --Shahina Piyarali