Talk at the National Gallery of Art!

October 7, 2015

I am thrilled and truly honored (and humbled!) to be speaking at the National Gallery of Art about Da Vinci's Tiger. Please come and spread the word!

At the National Gallery of Art

Sunday November 8^th, at 2 o’clock

West Building Lecture Hall

The Girl in the Portrait: Leonardo’s Ginevra de’ Benci

Making a novel about the only Leonardo da Vinci permanently housed in the Americas by fusing research and a reporter’s interpretation of scholarly fact with a novelist’s imagination. (Or how to humanize history and find story in art.)

Meet L. M. Elliott, author of Da Vinci’s Tiger (HarperCollins, 2015) and hear how she was inspired to write a novel based on Leonardo’s painting Ginevra de’ Benci from the collection of the National Gallery of Art. Young, beautiful, and witty, Ginevra longs to share her poetry and to take part in the artistic ferment of Renaissance Florence. Posing for her portrait with Leonardo introduces her to a world of thought and conversation Ginevra has yearned for. In a world of exquisite art, festivals, and jousts, the young poet faces many challenges and a deadly battle between powerful families to discover her own voice, artistic companionship, and a love that defies categorization.

In a starred review, Publishers Weekly says: “Renaissance Florence breathes through this delicately beautiful book, bringing readers to a fuller understanding of the portrait, the era, and an indomitable young woman.”

Elliott will share known details of Ginevra de' Benci's life, her own research and how that guided her thoughts and choices as a novelist, where Ginevra’s portrait fell in Leonardo's career, plus the art and leaders of Renaissance Florence. Geared for high school to college-aged girls and art lovers of all ages, the talk will run 35 minutes.

Book signing of DaVinci’s Tiger to follow. Books will be available for purchase.

L. M. Elliott is the author of Under a War-torn Sky, a WWII story of a B-24 bomber pilot and the French Resistance, named a Notable Book in Social Studies (NCSS/CBC), a Jefferson Cup Honor Book, a Bank Street College Best Book, and winner of Borders’ Original Voices Award; its sequel, A Troubled Peace, also a NCSS/CBC Notable; and its companion, Across a War-tossed Sea, a Jefferson Cup Runneth-Over selection; Give Me Liberty; and Annie Between the States, an IRA Teacher’s Choice and NYC Public Library Book for the Teen Age.

For more information see www.lmelliott.com