Portrait in Red by L John Harris

Portrait in Red by L John Harris

The quest to uncover the history of a mysterious painting, and a joyous exploration of art in the twentieth century and beyond.

While wandering the streets of Paris in 2015, L. John Harris finds an abandoned, unfinished, and strangely compelling painting. The subject: a girl wearing a bright-red head covering, fixing her viewer with a foreboding gaze. The painting bears no signature, only the date: January 12, 1935. Harris, a journalist and illustrator, embarks on a multi-year quest to uncover the story behind this painting. His sleuthing has given birth to Portrait in Red, a wide-ranging exploration of art and its enduring mysteries.

With wit and a contagious enthusiasm, Harris traces unexpected connections between Paris on the eve of World War II, his bohemian life in the San Francisco Bay Area, the aura of original paintings, the magic of found objects, and the aesthetics of a perfect croque monsieur. Portrait in Red will delight lovers of Edmund de Waal's The Hare with Amber Eyes or Michael Finkel's The Art Thief. By turns heartbreaking and laugh-out-loud funny, it is an existential detective story, set among world tragedies, art-historical epiphanies, and comic hijinks.

Praise for Portrait in Red:

"At once a detective story, a Parisian culinary travel memoir, and a chain of ruminations on serendipity and the nature and power of art, especially anonymous art" —Kirkus Reviews

"Portrait in Red is about how a stranger's trash became an inquisitive writer's treasure—a free-wheeling, fascinating dissertation on a found object with infinite worth." —Foreword Reviews

"A gem of a book—a journey of discovery that reveals much about art's power to seduce us, and even more about the author's passion for it." —Terrance Gelenter, host of Your American Friend in Paris

"Portrait in Red is a rich global tapestry that is inviting, inventive, and lively." —W. Scott Haine, author of The History of France

"An amusing and authentic story of a beautiful and mysterious painting." —Serge Sorokko, Serge Sorokko Gallery, San Francisco

"In Portrait in Red, L. John Harris takes on the role of a Paris flâneur who comments on all he sees, hears, feels, and tastes. Harris's expert eye and palette tease out the nuances of life on the streets of the French capital." —Zack Rogow, coauthor of Colette Uncensored

"Local color, endearing ruminations, and Harris's obsessive love for the City of Light shine through in these pages. C’est formidable!" —David Downie, author of A Taste of Paris

L. John Harris, born in Los Angeles, studied art and literature at UC Berkeley in the 1960s. Seduced by Berkeley's food revolution in the 1970s, Harris worked at several iconic shops and restaurants and wrote The Book of Garlic (1974). He launched his cookbook company, Aris Books, in 1980 and his "Foodoodles" cartoon byline in Bay Area magazines led to a series of illustrated memoirs: Foodoodles (2010), Café French (2019) and My Little Plague Journal (2022). Mr. Harris coproduced with PBS in 2001 the film Los Romeros: The Royal Family of the Guitar and serves as the curator of the Harris Guitar Collection at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. Harris's next book is a history of Berkeley's "gourmet ghetto," to be published by Heyday.