The Van Gogh Deception

“We must make an effort like the lost, like the desperate.”

The epigraph is an excerpt from Vincent van Gogh’s letter to his brother, Theo, and highlights Part 1’s focus on Art’s vulnerability. Without his memory, Art feels “lost” and “desperate” and is generally timid in his interactions with the Sullivans. However, van Gogh’s plea to “make an effort” foreshadows Art’s resilience and persistence as he delves into his past to recover his identity. The original line from van Gogh’s letter refers to the passion of painting and is a critique of one of van Gogh’s contemporaries whose works he found to lack vitality. In the original letter, the line that precedes the quotation reads, “A bit more passion or emotion would do him no harm, a little more self-confidence and a little more daring” (“Vincent van Gough: The Letters.” Vangoghletters.org). The fuller context of the epigraph provides an appropriate description of Art’s character arc where he develops from a quiet and uncertain boy to a confident and fearless action hero.

“However, bright fluorescent lights, modern windows, and a new central heating and air-conditioning system—with silver vents slithering around the ceiling of the former barn—made it clear that this was no longer a home to poultry, cows, and goats.”

In his description of the forger’s workspace, Hicks emphasizes the contrast between the modern and industrial with the traditional and the rustic. Baudin utilizes the benefits of modern technology to reproduce the van Gogh paintings as authentically as possible. The mixture of old and new allows Baudin’s work to go undetected, and he hails himself a genius. However, the scene also implies that van Gogh is the true genius who created his work without all the modern amenities that Baudin’s forgeries rely on.

“‘Sorry for being late,’ she called. ‘How’s she been?’

‘She’s been Camille,’ the woman called back.

‘Sorry!’ Mary replied.”

Mary picks up Camille from her sister’s home, and the exchange between the two women demonstrates how Camille’s reputation precedes her. Earlier in the car ride, Mary tells Art that her daughter acts like “she’s thirty” (23). Before readers see or hear from her character, Camille is presented as someone who has a quality of simply being herself. Mary’s lighthearted apology suggests that she knows her daughter may be a handful, but she also raised her to be independent and strong. Additionally, Camille’s “Camille-ness” functions as a stark contrast to Art’s inability to recall anything about his own identity, even his name. As a girl who assuredly knows herself, Camille is the ideal companion to help Art recover his identity.

“Faint images were all that remained, the afterglow of something real. It was like trying to grab smoke.”

On his first night at the Sullivans, Art has a dream that replays the moments leading up to his amnesia. In this simile, he compares his memories to vapors that are within his reach but impossible to grasp, and the comparison connotes frustration and longing. The answers to Art’s identity are within him, but he cannot access them. The paradox is further enhanced in the irony that only in his dreams does he detect traces of “something real.”

“‘It is what it is,’ Palmer continued. ‘We deal with events as they exist, not as we wish them to be. I need you focused for this afternoon, not worried about what’s already happened.’”

During his meeting with Dr. Belette, Palmer coolly informs his accomplice that the boy and the spider are still missing. In contrast to Art’s emphasis on recovering his past, Palmer is only concerned with the present moment. As the main antagonist, Palmer considers himself decisive and invincible. He presents himself as someone who does not get distracted by missed opportunities or worry about what has happened. The irony is that every time Palmer thinks he has Art cornered, the boy manages to outwit his team. Palmer’s flaw is his arrogance, and in the beginning of the novel, he repeatedly underestimates the children.

“Belette was a nervous man, prone to stepping all over himself. Fortunately, Belette was also a greedy man, and Palmer believed that would make all the difference.”

Palmer places his confidence in Belette’s greed rather than persuasive skills to deceive the museum’s board of trustees, and the statement ironically foreshadows his own downfall. Palmer miscalculates the power of Belette’s greed when, at the novel’s end, Belette decides to tell the authorities everything he knows about Palmer’s scheme to save his own skin. Whereas Art and Camille’s friendship upholds the values of trust and loyalty, Palmer and his associates are merely concerned with their own welfare and attaining wealth.

“She knew it was easier just to take the picture than to continue to argue with her daughter. And to be fair, she also knew that she had a tendency to argue with her daughter for argument’s sake—Camille had that kind of effect on people.”

Mary admits that she and Camille have contentious moments with each other, and their minor disputes highlight the ways that even supportive families will have disagreements. The scene also develops Camille into a round character. She is not simply the comic relief or scrappy sidekick but is also a young girl with flaws. Camille’s obstinance may work for her when she needs to assert herself and challenge authority, but she can also be exasperating and bring out the argumentative side in her mother.

“There is hidden in so many a heart a great and vigorous faith. We, too, are in need of this when we think of much that is in store for us.”

In another epigraph taken from Vincent van Gogh’s letter to his brother, Theo, van Gogh emphasizes resilience in the face of an uncertain future. The quote highlights the main theme in Part 2, which deals with Art’s growing confidence and determination to follow the clues to his identity. Most of the novel’s rising and dramatic action occurs in this section, as Art is chased from one dangerous location to the next. The trials awaken his hidden confidence, and Art’s faith in the truth motivates his actions. In the original context of the letter, van Gogh describes his struggles to succeed and his religious faith (“Vincent van Gough: The Letters.” Vangoghletters.org).

“‘A pencil,’ she said. ‘Worthless.’ She pushed it to the side.”

When Art and Camille search the contents of his backpack, Camille quickly discards a pencil as “worthless,” and the scene is a comical and ironic statement on the role of analog versus digital devices in the modern age. The Sullivans, the Hamiltons, and Palmer’s team all rely on digital technology in their daily lives. iPads, cellphones, computers, and digital key cards are just a few of the most common examples. On the other hand, the pencil, like the pen, is a metonym for analog tools and creations such as drawings, literature, and by extension, paintings like the ones cherished in museums and worth millions of dollars on the art market.

“The roper’s job is simple—gain the victims’ trust. Get them to trust you, and then rope them in […] Winston Lantham, a member of Palmer’s team, had initially despised the term. They weren’t con artists, Lantham had insisted. They were professionals—well-trained, well-educated people who took pride in their work […] Over time the term had grown on Lantham.”

The novel presents Palmer and his team as flat characters whose primary motivation is greed. Not much is known about the members of his team or how they’ve come together. Cash, McClain, Bazanov, Stenhouse, and Lantham are for the most part merely extensions of Palmer’s central command. They take his instructions through their earpieces and simply follow orders. This scene offers a rare glimpse into the mindset of one of his operatives. Lantham at first rejects his title as a “roper” and finds it demeans his higher talents as a trained spy. However, he comes to accept the term as an accurate description of his unique line of work. Lantham makes a living by exploiting people’s trust and violating their privacy. Even he can’t con himself into thinking otherwise.

“He could see the anxiety in her eyes. He buckled his seat belt into place. He didn’t know what else to do, and it seemed like a small act of solidarity.”

This scene highlights the small but meaningful ways that Art and Camille express their loyalty to each other. With no means to defend themselves, Art follows Camille’s actions and buckles his seatbelt despite finding it a ridiculous habit to observe during a kidnapping. The gesture of solidarity ends up saving them both from injury when the car crashes into a building. The scene also functions as a contrast to the many ways that Palmer’s associates are a “team” in name only. When McClain falls unconscious under a hotel lobby’s Christmas tree, Cash leaves him there to continuing pursuing the kids. In the finale, Palmer orders his men to take Art and his father as hostages, and Lantham and Bazanov simply drop their weapons.

“I figured it was some sort of system glitch—maybe a power surge or something. Didn’t think anything of it until I got the call that we were looking for a couple of kids.”

Palmer succeeds in his deceptions because of people’s lack of discernment, and he easily hides his team’s trail twice from the authorities by erasing security camera footage. In both cases, the security guards did not notice the missing footage and presumed the erasure was simply a “glitch.” Although their job is to surveil the premises and watch for signs of danger or disturbance, the guards register the blip as an anomaly and pursue it no further. Many of Palmer’s schemes rely on people’s willingness to accept appearances and not delve any further. He succeeds not only because he is technological savvy but also because he understands the nuances of human behavior and their modes of observation.

“Art knew Camille could be loud. But he did not appreciate exactly how loud. The sound of Camille’s voice exploded in the interior of the SUV like a high-pitched clap of rolling thunder.”

When the children are captured in the SUV, Camille begins screaming at the men despite her fear, aggravating the captors and impressing Art at the same time. She only quiets down when the men threaten her with a stun gun, but her cries express her defiant nature and how she is the type to choose “fight” over “flight” in a situation of fear. In this scene, Art uses her screams as a distraction, and on his cue, her scream is loud enough to send the car off course. The simile comparing her voice to thunder echoes Mary’s nickname for her daughter, “Hurricane Camille.” Although Camille is depicted earlier as a garrulous tween who doesn’t stop to take a breath, here Camille’s voice represents strength, fury, and a force to be reckoned with.

“The normal protocol was to check the area around the museum before putting out any alerts. Mary knew this procedure made sense. But she also knew that Camille would not have left the museum without her permission. Something else was going on—and Mary suspected that Detective Evans felt the same way.”

Unlike the security guards who explain away the footage erasure as a glitch, Mary and Detective Evans know that something is amiss. They follow their intuition and pursue the feeling that something is not right. Both Mary and Evans are like Art’s father who has a feeling that something is not right about the van Gogh painting despite the work passing all his tests. These adults base their feelings not simply on a gut reaction but on the fact that they know their subjects very well. Mary has a close relationship with Camille and knows that the day’s events go against everything she knows about her daughter’s behavior. Likewise, Hamilton has spent years observing paintings and knew that something about the forgery was crooked.

“Even though one seeks with the expectation of finding, finding is a complete surprise nonetheless.”

Part 3 begins with another epigraph from Vincent van Gogh’s letter to his brother, Theo. The quote’s theme about seeking and the surprise of finding foreshadows the final section where Art plays a game of cat-and-mouse with Palmer. Art leaves a clue at the museum that only his father can decipher, and as Palmer and his men “seek” Art and the notebook, Art has a “surprise” waiting for them in the form of their capture. The excerpt can also be read as a commentary on the pleasures of reading mysteries. In the original context of van Gogh’s letter, he describes the feeling of seeking love and the surprise of finding it (“Vincent van Gough: The Letters.” Vangoghletters.org).

“The boy stepped back and stared up at the large transom window above the door. The pane was completely dark. From all appearances, no one was in the room. But Art knew that appearances could be deceiving.”

Art’s prudence before entering the art studio demonstrates his awareness that not everything can be judged by its appearance. Art had already been deceived once by Palmer’s men and vowed not to trust anyone but the Sullivans and Detective Evans. He extends his caution toward the setting as well, and his thoughts foreshadow the very contents of the room. When he enters the studio, Art discovers that the space is in fact his father’s laboratory where he authenticates the van Gogh painting. The entire facility is devoted to exposing how looks can be deceiving.

“They weren’t nice prepackaged tubes of paint with pretty labels. They weren’t paintbrushes made of some industrially manufactured bristles. They weren’t convenient, easy-to-use aerosol cans filled with lacquer, or the nice premade canvases that you can buy in multipacks at the local craft store. No, the bottles on the shelf represented raw materials used by artists for centuries.”

Art marvels over the traditional art supplies used by many of his favorite painters over the ages. The contrast between the traditional artists’ raw materials over modern art supplies draws a distinction between an intimate relationship with art over a sterile one. The “industrially manufactured” products emphasize ease and convenience. Objects are “premade” and “easy-to-use” and suggest a level of removal between the artist and the work. In contrast, the traditional artists from the past centuries had a more direct and tactile relationship with their work by laboring over all aspects of its construction. Art balances his romanticism of the raw materials by acknowledging how toxic the chemicals are. Nevertheless, he finds the works of art poignant in that artists risked their health and lives to make their works.

“The memories, all of them, flooded his head—and the boy remembered everything. It was as if a light had been turned on in a dark room. There was no transition. One moment the boy was an empty shell, and the next moment he was there—a full person.”

The simile of Art as a dark room and the metaphor of the empty shell both emphasize the melancholy of Art’s memories. The cathartic imagery of illumination and fullness come with the painful realization that Art not only remembers who he is but also remembers who he has lost. Art believes he witnessed Palmer’s men murder his father, and when Camille inquires further about his family, she learns that Art’s mother passed away when he was four years old. The rush of memories overwhelms him, and Art begins to cry. Art’s “memory loss” transforms into “memories of loss,” and the moment is both jarring and painful.

“There are thousands of people who could paint a perfect copy of a van Gogh—or a Rembrandt, da Vinci, or Renoir. That’s actually the easy part. It’s science that makes the painting look old—and it’s science that finds the fakes.”

Art argues that replicating a painter’s style is far easier than replicating the age and material of the purported artifact. His distinction between the style and the science of forged artwork invokes the role of technology in creating and exposing fraud. For Palmer, technology enables deception. His prolific use of spyware to hack accounts produces a world where information can be falsified or destroyed. In contrast, Hamilton relies on technology to detect fraud. His studio’s giant monitor and lab table are tools of his trade. However, the only evidence to prove the van Gogh as a forgery resides not in computer and chemical analyses but rather in a hand-drawn sketch in an old leather notebook. By having the key to the mystery be in an analog form, Hicks offers a commentary on the overreliance of digitization and the value of preserving traditional formats of information.

“Camille could tell that Art was blaming himself for what had happened to his father. She needed to keep him talking.

‘How did you get away?’ she asked.”

When Art regains his memory, he blames himself for not making the connection between the kidnapper’s SUV and the SUV from the night his father was taken. Camille intuits that Art harbors guilt over seeing what he believed to be his father’s death and not being able to stop it. She tries to keep him emotionally present by having him talk about his escape. By choosing this topic, she emphasizes the fact that Art was himself under threat and in a position of vulnerability and could not possibly be responsible for his father’s fate.

“There are secrets everywhere.”

Art recalls a visit to Windsor Castle where he took a tour of the hidden doors and passageways behind the castle walls. Mesmerized by the experience, Art makes a habit of asking to see any secrets in the many buildings he visited with his father. The motto of secrets being everywhere is one that sparks delight rather than suspicion. Unlike the secrecy of Palmer’s world, where no one can be trusted and everyone is under surveillance, Art’s world of secrets revolves around the cultural treasures that often go unnoticed by the public.

“Camille didn’t think the detective was buying her story. But it didn’t matter. A promise was a promise.”

Camille’s loyalty to her mother and Art is best illustrated in her keeping of promises. In moments of moral ambiguity, Camille relies on the strict interpretation of her promises to guide her decisions. When she deserts her mother to follow Art to the checkroom, she acknowledges that her mother will be worried and angry, but she reasons that watching over Art upholds her promise to her mother. In this scene, Camille must choose between telling the adults the truth or keeping her promise to Art. She chooses to withhold information from her mother and Detective Evans but roots her decisions on the vow she has given. Mary and Detective Evans appear to understand that Camille is not intentionally being defiant and do not force her to confess what she knows. Camille’s sense of right and wrong is strongly based on her commitment to keeping her word.

“He knew what his father would have said. Arthur Sr. would have told him to call the police—protect himself, turn over the journal. But Art knew exactly what would happen then—the men who had been chasing the boy would disappear into the wind, and his father would never be seen again. Art wasn’t going to let that happen.”

Throughout the novel, Art and Camille find themselves in harrowing situations where they must act quickly to escape their pursuers. Art reasons that the only way to save his father is to perform the rescue himself, despite the dangers or the chances of failure. Like Camille, Art goes against adult expectations and follows his own logic of what is the right thing to do. Saving his father is his primary motivation, and given the loss of his mother at a young age and the belief that he had already lost his father once, Art bases his decision on the need to keep his family intact and prevent losing the last biological family member he has.