Dina in the Red Dress
The Artist's Muse Who Defied the Nazis
23 February 2027
Territory Rights — Worldwide including Canada, Singapore and Malaysia, but excluding the British Commonwealth.
Description
For fans of A Woman of No Importance and Madame Fourcade’s Secret War comes the extraordinary true story of an intrepid young woman and the artist compelled to immortalize her.
Summer 1940. As France falls to Nazi Germany, Dina Vierny, a young activist and muse, inspires the most ambitious works by renowned artist Aristide Maillol. Despite their significant age gap, the two become fierce collaborators. But Dina is restless in the face of extreme political oppression. Under the cover of night, she leads Resistance missions through the Pyrenees mountains, bringing artists, intellectuals, and activists to the relative safety of Spain. An untold number of refugees owe their freedom to a woman guiding the way in a distinctive red dress.
In this powerful work of reclamation, biographer Lynne Bermont reveals that Dina’s wartime bravery was but one era of her life. A creative in her own right, Dina helped shape the postwar cultural landscape of Paris teeming with artistic energy. Between movie screenings with Henri Matisse and gallery visits with Pierre Bonnard, Dina amassed a spectacular art collection and later smuggled dissident art from the Soviet Union. Her unconventional career culminated in establishing a gallery, a museum, and a sculpture garden in the center of Paris that evince her legacy as a champion of Maillol and avant-garde artists. Today, Maillol’s serene but bold sculptures of Dina, a testament to their partnership, can be found at museums around the world, including New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art and London’s Tate Modern.
Beautifully rendered in cinematic detail by Bermont, Dina in the Red Dress pairs an incredible story of friendship between a fearless radical and a visionary artist with a rousing, timely reminder of how art can empower both resistance against fascism and the persistence of hope.
Reviews
"Lynne Bermont’s thoughtful, meticulously researched biography brings to life a time, not unlike our own, when great artists operated in a world that demanded great activism. An exciting and profound tale of devotion and sacrifice, told with suspense and, above all, a discerning eye." — Robert Kolker, author of The Vanishing Family: Love, Fate, and the Quest to End Dementia
"Thanks to Lynne Bermont’s skilled and exuberant writing, Dina in the Red Dress roars to life with all the energy and joie de vivre of its subject. This elegant portrait blends art, war, history, and culture in a thrilling mix that both captivates and inspires. I loved the hours I spent with the elusive, courageous, and dazzling Dina. Bermont’s superb telling of this fearless heroine’s story should cement Dina Vierny’s name and legacy in history." — Heath Hardage Lee, author of The Mysterious Mrs. Nixon and The League of Wives
"Dina Vierny, muse and model for the sculptor Aristide Maillol, saved many refugees by donning a red dress and bravely guiding them out of occupied France. Vierny would later become a leading collector, gallerist, and museum maker. Out of these bright strands, and with impeccable research, Lynne Bermont has crafted an unforgettable story that shares qualities of Maillol’s own sculptures: powerful as a river, lighter than air. A bold braiding of a singular life, extraordinary art, and what endures." — Natalie Dykstra, author of Chasing Beauty: The Life of Isabella Stewart Gardner
"Simply superb. Lynne Bermont debunks one of the last remaining myths attached to women in art—that the models depicted in our most cherished paintings and sculptures were mere passive muses. In Dina in a Red Dress, Bermont gives heart, flesh and, most importantly, brains to one of them—Dina Vierny, the woman who inspired and collaborated with the French master Aristide Maillol. After reading this book, it is impossible to look at his sculpture and not see Dina. Bermont has accomplished what only the very best sculptors are able to achieve: she has breathed life into stone." — Mary Gabriel, author of Ninth Street Women
"Vivid, suspenseful, and beautifully researched, Dina in the Red Dress tells the story of a woman who lived a double life: muse by day and Resistance fighter by night. A gripping portrait of a fearless survivor and the extraordinary century she outlived." — Whitney Scharer, author of The Age of Light