The Underpainter is a novel of interwoven lives in which the world of
art collides with the realm of human emotion. It is the story of Austin
Fraser, an American painter now in his later years who is haunted by
memories of those whose lives most deeply touched his own, including a
young Canadian soldier and china painter and the beautiful model who
becomes Austin's mistress.
Spanning decades, the setting moves from upstate New York to the
Northern shores of two Great Lakes; from France in World War One to New
York City in the '20s and '30s.
Brilliantly depicting landscape and the geography of the imagination,
The Underpainter is Jane Urquhart's most accomplished novel to date.