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Thunderclap: A Memoir of Art and Life & Sudden Death
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99/99
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54/99
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About This Book
A fascinating, little-known story of the massive explosion in Holland that killed Carel Fabritius, renowned painter of The Goldfinch and A View of Delft and nearly killed Johannes Vermeer—two of the greatest artists of the 17th century. In 1654, the Thunderclap—an enormous explosion at a gunpowder store—devasted the city of Delft, killing hundreds of people, including the extraordinary painter Carel Fabritius, and injuring thousands more. Framing the story around the life of Fabritius, Cumming illuminates this extraordinary moment in art history while also writing about her own father, a painter. Like Dutch art, the story gradually links country, city, town, street, house, interior—all the way to the bird on its perch, the blue and white tile, the smallest seed in a loaf of bread. The impact of a painting and how it can enter our thoughts, influence our view and understanding of the world is the heart of this book. Cumming has brought her unique eye to her most compelling subject yet. Featuring beautiful full-color images of Dutch paintings throughout.
Reviews
"Cumming clearly loves these paintings, and by weaving together vivid evocations of ones that particularly move her with brief biographies of the men and women who painted them, she invites us to share that love ..."
"Imagery of the eye pervades the book, which is, in contrast to its title, quietly meditative ..."
"Moving reflections rendered in precise, radiant prose."
"Cumming is a word-painter, mixing vocabulary as deftly as Spoors mixed the pigments ..."
"Part homage to her father and part critical study of Dutch painting, Cumming's genre-spanning book is first and foremost a biography."
"I won't spoil the deductive climax, except to say it gives off a brilliant flash of imaginative ignition as the book's two opposed ideas electrically connect."
"Its thunderclap still echoes in my ears."
"In asking why we return to paintings across decades, and centuries, this book gave me a chance to see anew."
"Cumming writes with the sureness of carefully laid paint."
"There is a connective line between Thunderclap and John Berger's Ways of Seeing in imploring us to look, and look again."
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