While a blog dedicated to writing about, and exploring topics and themes touched upon in, my novel, it seemed only natural to create a post explaining the title: The Last Train from Paris.
As a lover and student of modern art, I’ve always been particularly enamored with the works of Joan Miró, and interested in how his experience of the war affected his art. So I was amazed to learn that Miró actually continued to live and paint in France up until 1940 and that the war – along with his very famous constellation series – marked a turning point for Joan Miró and his paintings.
During this point in his painting and life, Miró has said the he “felt a deep desire to escape… The night, music and the stars began to play increasingly important roles in my pictures. And music was beginning to be of as much importance to me as poetry had been in the twenties.”
And when the War encroached and threatened Miró’s artistic escape he was forced to leave France, literally catching the last train from Paris on his way to Spain. Even better, Miró managed to take most of his recent painting with him when he left France, since most of his work was Gouache paint on paper, which was light and portable enough to be fit into a portfolio or briefcase and taken with him on the train.
So the title comes from my mental image of Miró taking the last train from Paris with his constellation collection under his arm, heading back to Spain, where he would get news of his breakthrough success and acceptance of the international art world. When I first head of this, it seemed almost better than a real life Casablanca story – something worth writing about. At the very least it was a great jumping off point for creating historical fiction, which is what I did.
Sound interesting? Buy my book and let me know what you think. Or feel free to comment on your own thoughts about Miró, WWII, or even Casablanca for that matter.
