59 pages 1 hour read

The Van Gogh Deception

Fiction | Novel | Middle Grade | Published in 2017

A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.

Themes

Fraud, Fake Identities, and the Search for Truth and Sincerity

Content Warning: This novel references children in foster care and harm to children. It also references kidnapping. It plays into stereotypes by at times referring to a child in foster care as “lost.”

Fraud and the search for truth is one of the novel’s most prominent themes and highlights each character’s relationship to integrity, knowledge, and ways of seeing. On the plot level, Palmer’s scheme is entirely based on fraud, as his plan involves deceiving people and selling forged paintings. He operates by hiding the truth and relies on repurposed canvases, anonymous identities, and the destruction of a paper trail and security camera footage to con his buyers and elude the authorities. The success of Palmer’s plan depends not solely on how accurately his forger mixes the chemicals or applies the paint, but also on his buyers’ behaviors. Art’s father explains, “[t]he fake van Gogh was really, really good—the best fake I’ve ever seen. But more important, there’s pride involved” (305). He further explains that art fraud relies on people’s inability to see beyond appearances, whether that is out of gullibility, manipulation, or wish fulfillment. Hamilton contends that “no one wants to believe they paid hundreds of millions of dollars for a fake—so they simply don’t ask” (306). The art forger’s advantage is in people’s disinterest in searching for the truth, and Hamilton’s expertise in art is two-fold. Not only does he authenticate the truth of a painting’s identity, but he also sees a hidden truth about how undetected fraud protects an art collector’s ego or an art expert’s reputation. In a novel about a boy’s search for his identity, readers see many people who have fraud and fake appearances at the front of their own identities.

The threat to Palmer’s plan literally relies on whether someone will see the back side of the van Gogh painting, a metaphor for looking beyond surface appearances. In Chapter 7, Hicks provides a QR code to Hans Holbein the Younger’s painting The Ambassadors as an exemplar of deceptive appearances. The painting is a double portrait of two men with a distorted shape near their feet. The shape is an anamorphic skull, which means it only appears depending on the viewer’s angle to the artwork. Like the skull in the painting, Palmer’s malicious intentions are hidden from view unless he is seen at a specific angle. Detective Wasberger can see only what Palmer wants him to believe, and the conman presents himself as a concerned older brother. Like a sleight of hand magician, Palmer uses misdirection by emphasizing his sports watch, bright red sneakers, and a fake tattoo to distract the detective from his real identity. Finding the truth, and the truth behind someone’s identity, requires looking from an angle in which one actually wants to find said truth. Buyers of forgeries don’t care to look for true authenticity and so don’t; in this case, too, Detective Washberger seems disinterested in truly helping Art and so sees a genuine brother in Palmer. Detective Evans, on the other hand, represents someone who genuinely wants to help Art and find the truth.

The search for truth is an asset for many of the story’s protagonists and a sign of their integrity and desire for knowledge. Hamilton makes a career of authenticating the truth. Art wishes to find the truth of his identity and his involvement in the van Gogh forgery. He instinctively knows that the password to Hamilton’s computer is verum (229), “truth” in Latin, and the word leads to the recovery of his memory and identity. Mary insists that Detective Evans tells her “the truth” (216) about the children’s disappearance so she can be informed. Camille confronts Art twice on the possibility of his father’s involvement in the crime of forgery, knowing how uncomfortable the truth might be. Finally, Detective Evans is “really good at getting to the truth” (19), and her integrity convinces Art to turn to her for the final scene and capture of Palmer and his men. This cast of truth-seekers is the antithesis to the manipulative and exploitative duplicity of Palmer and his team. The novel suggests that to find the truth, one must be true, or sincere, oneself. Searching for truth is itself truth, is itself genuineness. The cast of truth-seekers finds the truth of the artwork, the truth of Art’s identity, and the truth of their own identities, becoming more sincere people in the process.

The Transformative Power of Art for Oneself and One’s World

The clues to Art’s identity reside in the evocative power of art and the ways artwork can move, inspire, and suggest profound meanings to the viewer. Art’s nickname is itself a pun on the paintings’ significance to recovering his identity. Each painting he encounters evokes a strong memory not only to who he is but also to why the work is meaningful. One of the earliest moments of Art’s recovery occurs when Camille drinks from a mug imprinted with a Monet painting. The image mesmerizes Art, and he instantly recalls facts about Monet’s contributions to Impressionism and his own personal memory of visiting Paris. Hicks’s inclusion of QR codes produces a corresponding experience of transporting readers from the pages of the book to web pages of paintings in museums. The works of art function both on the plot level of sparking Art’s flashbacks and on an instructional level as lessons in art appreciation. The narrative comments that, “Art sounded more like a teacher than a twelve-year-old” (42), and the novel is the first in a series of Hicks’s Lost Art Mysteries that combine the kid detective genre with art education. The novel itself appreciates art and helps children to appreciate art, suggesting that the appreciation of art is itself a kind of truth-seeking, a way of understanding sincerity in the world. Art also functions to help one understand oneself; one can appreciate and interpret art to understand one’s own identity, and the author hopes children reading the book will learn to do this at a young age. They will discover a lifelong love and skill of truth-seeking through art.

Hicks’s appreciation of art’s transformative power is also evident in the novel’s opening chapter. The rustic French setting where Baudin forges the paintings recalls the fantasy backdrop of “witchcraft” and “wizardry” (6). Surrounded by apothecary bottles and laboratory equipment, Baudin’s workspace is “perfectly suited for the work of an alchemist or a sorcerer” (6). The exotic materials and allusion to alchemy refer not only to the forger’s skill but also to the talent of the original masters whose artistic techniques Baudin authentically replicates. The paintings are “gold” (9) turned from lead, and the metaphor celebrates the craft and beauty of the fine arts as wondrous feats. Art takes basic, mundane materials from the real-world, such as oil and cloth, and makes them into beautiful, almost magic-like things. The author suggests art can do this for readers, too, as they use it to transform themselves into the best people they can be. The truth-seekers are all examples of the extraordinary types of individuals a person can become through sincerity and beauty.

The setting’s relocation from Locronan, France, to Washington, DC, continues the theme of art’s transformative and evocative power. The National Gallery of Art, the novel’s main setting, stands among the monuments of Washington, DC, such as the National Portrait Gallery, the National Archives, the World War II Memorial, the Lincoln Memorial, and several other notable architectural landmarks mentioned in the novel. Hicks considers art museums as important repositories of culture and history, and the novel includes an illustrated map of downtown Washington, DC, and the National Gallery of Art’s place between the Washington Monument and the Capitol Building. Likewise, Art demonstrates the correlation between art, place, and time when he recalls a vivid memory of visiting Arles.

In Arles, Art had felt a profound connection with the space that van Gogh himself had occupied. The idea that van Gogh “may have once sat in that same spot and looked out at the same street” was enough to send a “chill going down his spine” (71). Art connects the history of the artist’s life and struggles with the vibrancy of his paintings’ colors and strokes: “Van Gogh fed on the energy of the city, and it transformed how he saw the world around him—a simple still life of oranges became a dazzling display of dark blues, deep greens, and bright yellows” (70). The passage highlights the way art can transform perspectives of the world and reflect the social and emotional moments of their time. It also suggest how art can transform the mundane world, such as a sitting spot in the city, into a beautiful canvas of colors. The novel teaches readers to see as an artist, just as van Gogh did, and allow the ordinary world to become extraordinary. Small places, small views can become places capable of sending chills down visitors’ spines.

The power of art also functions in the story’s climax, as Art depends on the value of van Gogh’s portrait of Ginevra de’ Benci to capture the villains. Knowing that any attempt to remove the painting would trigger the museum’s security system, Art employs the museum’s design for access and preservation to foil Palmer’s plan. Art and art save the day. If people rely on others, they can have institutions meant to preserve the integrity and sincerity of the world, the integrity and sincerity of art, foil the plans of the insincere and self-serving.

Trust Among Family and Friends as a Way to Create Sincerity

The theme of trust finds its most prominent expression in the novel’s depiction of family and friendship as relationships built on honesty and support. Camille, whom Art “didn’t think […] looked anything like her mother” (24), has never met her father and feels neither sadness nor stigma about his absence or being raised by a single mother. Mary’s honest explanation to Camille that her father “didn’t want kids” highlights the ways that families take different forms to ensure love, support, and care (51). Mary’s role as a foster parent reiterates the diversity of families and the need for youths to feel safe and supported. Some of the children placed with her have faced abuse and abandonment from their families, and she advocates for their welfare by providing them with a home. Family is a social unit that can connote traditions, safety, and a sense of belonging that help shape one’s identity. Without his memories, Art feels lost and empty with “[n]o family. No history. Nothing” (55). When he is temporarily placed with Mary, she instills an environment of patience and support for Art “to know that he’s safe” (34), and she quickly earns his trust. Again, the author deals with ideas of sincerity. Family is based solely on sincerity and care; if one’s motivations for another are sincere, then those two are family, regardless of biology. If one looks from the vantage point of wanting to sincerely care for another, then they will see the truth and develop genuineness in themselves and their relationship with that person, too. Dishonest art buyers look for “sincerity” from the wrong angle, from the angle of wanting status; if one looks for sincerity from the right angles, both in art and in family, then they will be able to identity their true selves and their true families, the truth in the world.

Like her mother, Camille understands that the children who stay with her family need to feel secure. When Mary asks if she can be a friend to Art, Camille responsibly responds, “I always do” (34), meaning she always is a friend to the children that stay with them. Her friendship becomes the central bond of trust for Art and provides him with the emotional support to ease his feelings of loneliness and isolation. Vulnerable without his memory, Art struggles with trust on both an internal and external level. He is uncertain of his own self-perception and has little assurance that other people are telling him the truth. Early on, he trusts Detective Evans when she demonstrates her honesty to him by directly answering his questions. However, when he realizes too late that Palmer’s men are impersonating officers, he vows to “[t]rust no one” from that point on (124).

Art’s lack of trust risks his further isolation, a danger for a boy who already feels “lost” (2) and “alone” (36). Yet, his mistrust is also wise considering Palmer’s methods of deception to capture the children. Camille is the solution to Art’s issues of trust as she refuses to leave his side and has proven to be a reliable friend who keeps her “promise” (269). Camille is, the novel explains, “tough and brave, and Art trusted her. And to be honest, he could probably use a friend” (162). Art’s ultimate trust in Camille to come to his rescue demonstrates that he has found security in himself and in their lasting friendship. She might not be biologically related to him, but she, through her care and sincerity, is his true family. Art pointedly introduces her to his father at the end as his friend. And Camille and Mary, too, help Art discover his own identity, suggesting that it is others, one’s family, that help one understand who oneself is. At the novel’s end, Art and his family preserve the sincerity of art, of emotional expression, by being sincere themselves among each other. They preserve sincerity in the art world and the world at large, allowing it to be safe and uncorrupted by fake thieves like Palmer.

blurred text
blurred text
blurred text
blurred text
Unlock IconUnlock all 59 pages of this Study Guide

Plus, gain access to 8,800+ more expert-written Study Guides.

Including features:

+ Mobile App
+ Printable PDF
+ Literary AI Tools