The Pelton Papers

February 10, 2020
Coates’s stirring debut imagines the life of painter Agnes Pelton (1881–1961). Set up as a memoir Agnes wrote in the last year of her life, the narrative begins in 1888, when she and her parents move from Germany to her grandmother’s home in Brooklyn. Her early promise at drawing led to enrollment at Pratt Institute at 14, and at 28 she spends a year in Rome studying painting. She grows artistically and meets friends and admirers but never finds love. While she’s drawn to women, she is stalled by the influence of her devout Christian grandmother, who instilled in her a fear of sin, and her own reserved nature. She returns to New York and is taken under the wing of Alice Thursby, a socialite who helps Agnes find a studio and galleries where she can display and sell her work. When Agnes intuits that her romantic feelings for Alice will never be mutual, she devotes her life to painting. After developing a new abstract style, she gains a following and relocates from New York to California. This captivating story of suppressed sexuality and finding satisfaction through making art offers subtle observations and moments of deep feeling. Coates brilliantly captures the creative eye of an unassuming, uniquely talented artist.

Starred review from March 1, 2020
Coates' debut biographical novel chronicles the life of modernist painter Agnes Lawrence Pelton (1881-1961). The story begins with Agnes as a child in Germany, where she was born to American parents; both had fled tragedies and scandals in their respective families. She's a sickly child, and her parents eventually return to Brooklyn, New York, where her mother opens a music school. As a teenager, Agnes studies art at the Pratt Institute, which leads to a job teaching art in Massachusetts. Later, she spends an exhilarating year in Italy, studying under former Pratt instructor Hamilton Easter Field. She's asked to exhibit her work in the famed Armory Show of 1913 when another mentor sees her work at Field's gallery. After exhibiting alongside Henri Matisse and Pablo Picasso, Agnes finds herself at the center of the art world, and she rents a studio in Manhattan's Greenwich Village. Along for the ride are her wealthy friends and patrons, including Mabel Dodge, who invites her to visit Taos, New Mexico. Later, she lives in a windmill in the Hamptons, painting portraits for wealthy families, but she finds it unsatisfying. A trip to Hawaii rekindles Agnes' desire for spiritual growth, and when a friend invites her to live in a California artists' commune, she jumps at the chance: "I knew that something was being born inside me, and without having to think about it, I knew what colors I would use." Coates' thoroughly researched novel, told from Agnes' first-person point of view, succeeds beautifully at recreating the emotional life of this once-obscure artist, whose legacy has lately become the subject of renewed interest. The characters are resolute and unshakable, from Agnes' stalwart mother to wealthy women who host political radicals and artists in their Fifth Avenue apartments. Coates draws Agnes' character with care, depicting her as longing for success and acceptance in the art world, but also craving solitude. The author also describes the artist's unique spiritual journey and the inspiration for her later, abstract works in vivid prose that's worthy of the artist. An in-depth, highly personal portrait of a remarkable talent.

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