The Last Painting of Sara De Vos

The chapter opens with Marty’s point of view. Having brought the painting to Sydney, he spends a few days playing tourist before looking up Ellie to find out her campus schedule. He understands any interaction with her will be “an intrusion” (216)—surely an unwelcome one—but he eventually convinces himself that encountering her on her own grounds is correct in the larger scheme of things. He goes to her Dutch Golden Age course, where she is giving a lecture on the importance of light. She seems knowledgeable and practiced in the lecture, and Marty feels an almost proprietary admiration for who she is—a respected academic.

The point of view then shifts to Ellie’s. In the days since the meeting with Helen Birch, Ellie composed two letters of resignation—one to the museum and one to the university. She plans to tell the whole story of the forgery and to offer to pay off the Dutch museum, no matter how ruinous the cost. She places these letters in her purse before heading to the campus to give a lecture. Ellie assigns homework in the lead-up to this lecture: Her students take light for granted, so she has them keep a journal of observations on how the light plays across the surfaces of Sydney.