Sacre Bleu: Comedy d’art by Christopher Moore

Sacre Bleu is a must read for anyone who has knowledge of art (or not) and loves a good laugh. The author, Christopher Moore, sends the reader on a time travel through the world of art history that is “painted over” with comedy, romance and mystery.  The novel begins with the death of the famed Dutch artist, Vincent Van Gogh. After hearing about the death, protagonist Lucien Lessard, a fictional baker-turned-artist, teams up with Henri Toulouse-Lautrec, artist and lover of brothels, to uncover the truth about Van Gogh. Before his “suicide” Van Gogh sends a letter to Henri Toulouse-Lautrec warning him of the dangers of The Colorman and his color blue, and that is where their troubles begin.

We simultaneously follow this mysterious Colorman who has obtained the rare color of Ultramarine and is selling it to all the great French painters during the nineteenth century. He uses his seductive partner in crime, Blue, a woman who has the power to transform into any man’s “ideal.” She becomes the one model an artist cannot pass up to paint.  She serves as a muse. The Sacre Bleu allows artists to unknowingly slow down time; In the time it may take them to complete not even one they have finished seven masterpiece paintings.

The Colorman and his beautiful Blue are the supposed inspiration for some of the most known masterpieces we know today. In Lucien’s case, she appears as a dark haired electric blue eyed, Juliette, a girl who had broken his heart before. We are even  taken to Napoleon III’s Salon des Refuses where Edouard Manet’s Olympia and Luncheon on the Grass and Whistler’s The White Girl are displayed. For all of which, Blue was the model.

However, there are consequences associated with using the color.  One could say the artist must make a deal with the devil, which some may argue is an interchangeable title for the immortal Colorman.  There must be a sacrifice made in order to continue the tradition of making this specific color.  The author claims pretty much every death of every great artist, or their spouses, is attributed to Bleu, the color man, and syphilis.

Moore gives the reader an art history lesson with no lack of his own vulgar twists and turns.  We put down the book with an increased sense of appreciation for art and their makers, as well as, a realization that men were the same then as they are now, hypnotized by the power of women…and apparently, the color Blue.