Maître Czerny would only choose one, but as he had so far disliked her every effort she had no real notion of what would please him best. So far she had completed three works that she hoped would pass muster: a landscape in pastels of lavender growing over an old wall, which she had begun the day she first met Sam; a pen-and-ink drawing of a man who sold newspapers by the Pont Louis-Philippe; and the portrait in oils of the farmer’s wife she’d seen at Les Halles. She liked all three well enough; they were competently executed and perfectly decorative. But they lacked life, just as Maître Czerny had often complained of Daisy’s work, and likely would say of hers if he ever bothered to take a closer look. They were inert, the sort of objects that were pretty and even rather interesting but not the slightest bit compelling. One afternoon, a fortnight after her sister’s visit, she arrived at the studio with Étienne and Mathilde; Daisy hadn’t come to class that day, for her father had been ill and she was needed at home.
What do You think about Moonlight Over Paris (2015)?
