
Indeed, Sara is the first woman admitted to the Guild. In 1636, Sara de Vos and her husband, Barent, are painters belonging to the Amsterdam artists’ Guild of Saint Luke.

The plot revolves around the only known surviving painting of Sara de Vos, At the Edge of a Wood. The novel is set in three different eras: the 1950s, the 1630s, and the year 2000. Ellie attempts to learn more about obscure, but superbly talented, seventeenth-century Dutch painter Sara de Vos. The Last Painting of Sara de Vos, a novel by Dominic Smith, focuses on Ellie Shipley, an art historian and former forger. NOTE: This study guide refers specifically to the 2016 Sarah Chrichton Books/Farrar, Straus, and Giroux First Edition of the Last Painting of Sara de Vos, by Dominic Smith.
