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Thunderclap: A Memoir of Art and Life & Sudden Death
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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 articulates why we are so magnetically drawn to certain paintings, even when their painters are long gone ..."
"Like all good elegists, Cumming, too, brings the dead to life in the very act of mourning them."
"For Laura Cumming, Dutch art is a placid paradise with the countdown to a cataclysm ticking away in the background."
"[A] tender reading ..."
"In one brief essay-like chapter after another, the author recounts her own adventures in art, weaving together vignettes and memories of her father, anecdotes about her career as an art critic, and observations and analyses of the lives and works of 17th-century Dutch artists ..."
"I was distracted by the occasional fey sentiment...but this is nitpicking over a book that often borders on the sublime in its sentiment and beauty."
"Alongside the story of Fabritius and Cumming's father, Thunderclap offers a fascinating insight into Dutch painting and broader Netherlandish society through its paintings, from housing to infrastructure, poverty and family life ..."
"A tender homage to art ..."
"Cumming...draws us into another mystery that fascinates her: that of the brief life of the genius Fabritius, the painter of The Goldfinch, the chained bird that stares back at us from its prison of a perch ..."
"This is not art historical scholarship of the academic kind – there are no footnotes or references to sources beyond her own feelings and intuition."
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