Rebecca Birrell is an art historian, writer and curator and all of skills are on show in her first novel Venus, Vanishing. This book is a holocaust story. More particularly, it is an exploration of the lives of Jewish women artists in the years leading up to World War 2.
Venus, Vanishing opens in 1928 with a young woman, Hannah Sherman who has moved out of home to live in a boarding house in Berlin. Hannah’s mother is a seamstress and while Hannah makes a living doing tailoring and mending, what she really wants is to be an artist. So Hannah leaves home, changes her surname to Schmidt and begins to teach herself to draw. Along the way she picks up both a boyfriend, Saul who is a curator at the art gallery that she spends time in, and a girlfriend, Charlotte, a dancer at a local club.
Hannah’s break comes when she draws the attention of the wealthy Elke, whose husband is an official in the Nazi party. Elke commissions Hannah to paint a series of nudes. In doing so Elke draws her into the question of what is acceptable art under the growing Nazi regime. And, more importantly, the control over who should be allowed to make art at all. Through Hannah and her friends Birrell documents the inexorable rise of Nazism and its impact on the Jews of Berlin, the privations that they suffer and the compromises that they have to make to survive.
Venus, Vanishing takes readers to a dark time and place. Hannah wants to help her family to escape but they cannot contemplate that things will get worse. And when they do finally decide they need to leave, they find that doors are closed and their life becomes even more difficult. But it is also a hopeful one. Venus, Vanishing is first and foremost about art and the power of art, about the way in which it transforms Hannah and her life. Birrell’s deep understanding of art, art history and the artists of the time suffuses and deepens the book without getting in the way. At the end of the book she provides a list of paintings referenced and also a lengthy Historical Note that discusses all of the many real Jewish female artists who she drew inspiration from in creating the character of Hannah.
Just when you think that there have been too many books exploring this period of history, someone comes along and gives you another way of looking at it. Venus, Vanishing gives another perspective on the rise of Nazism and its impact not only on the lives of the people of Berlin but in particular on the way in which they were allowed to express themselves. It is insightful, compelling and, unfortunately, timely.
Venus, Vanishing by Rebecca Birrell
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