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Book of the Week

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Serialised book readings, featuring works from various genres

Serialised book readings, featuring works of non-fiction, biography, autobiography, travel, diaries, essays, humour and history

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Book of the Week: The Vanishing Man

Siobhan Redmond

Laura Cumming

Isobel Creed

Jill Waters

Book of the Week: The Vanishing Man: Episode 1

Factual: Science & Nature

The Vanishing Man

Episode 1

BBC Radio 4 - Book of the Week, The Vanishing Man, Episode 1

By Laura Cumming. An auction bargain ignites a humble bookseller with a lifelong obsession

The Spanish genius Velasquez painted few pictures. Did John Snare discover a long-lost treasure in 1845? And if so, where is it now? Art critic Laura Cumming turns detective.

Laura Cumming charts the obsession of a 19th century Reading bookseller with a portrait of Charles I - painted when the Monarch was a young man on a visit to Madrid. The Spanish genius Velasquez painted very few pictures, so did John Snare discover a long-lost treasure? And if so, where is it now?

This is a story about the intense emotions that great art can provoke - passions that sometimes verge on the irrational and which transcend considerations of value.

John Snare's conviction about the painting he bought evolved into a dispute with those who had more money, power and influence. In a sense, the missing Velasquez became a battleground for class war and the individual against the establishment.

But at the heart of the story lies a work of art, created with such skill and delicacy that it inspired the fiercest of feelings and continues to exert its mysterious pull to this day.

Read by Siobhan Redmond
Written by Laura Cumming
Abridged by Isobel Creed

Produced by Jill Waters
A Waters Company production for BBC Radio 4.

BBC Radio 4

Intelligent speech, the most insightful journalism, the wittiest comedy, the most fascinating features and the most compelling drama and readings anywhere in UK radio.

Laura Cumming charts the obsession of a 19th-century Reading bookseller with a portrait.

Siobhan Redmond reads Laura Cumming's account of the obsession of a 19th-century Reading bookseller with a portrait of Charles I.

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