Thunderclap

£12.99

On the morning of 12th October 1654, in the Dutch city of Delft, a sudden explosion was followed by a thunderclap that could be heard more than seventy miles away. Carel Fabritius – now known across the world for his exquisite painting, The Goldfinch – had been at work in his studio. He, along with many others, would not survive the day. In ‘Thunderclap’, Laura Cumming reveals her passion for the art of the Dutch Golden Age and her determination to lift up the reputation of Fabritius. She reveals the Netherlands, where – wandering the narrow streets of Amsterdam, driving across the flatlands, or pausing at a quiet waterfront – she encounters the rich reality behind the shining beauty of Vermeer and Rembrandt, Hals and de Hooch. This is a book about what a picture may come to mean: how it can enter your life and change your thinking in a thunderclap, a sudden clarity of sight.

In stock

Description

**SHORTLISTED FOR THE WOMEN’S PRIZE FOR NON-FICTION 2024**
**WINNER OF THE WRITERS’ PRIZE 2024 | NON-FICTION**

A beautifully illustrated new memoir of a life in art, a father and daughter, and what a shared love of a painting can come to mean.

‘Brilliant’ Edmund de Waal * ‘Captivating’ Nina Stibbe * ‘Extraordinary’ India Knight

On the morning of 12 October 1654, a gunpowder explosion devastated the Dutch city of Delft. Among the fatalities was the painter Carel Fabritius, dead at thirty-two, leaving behind his haunting masterpiece The Goldfinch.

Thunderclap explores what happened to Fabritius before and after the disaster whilst interweaving the lives of Laura Cumming, her painter father and the great artists of the Dutch Golden Age. It takes the reader from seventeenth-century Delft to twentieth-century Scottish islands, from Rembrandt’s studio to wartime America and contemporary London. This is a book about what a picture may come to mean, how it can enter your life and change your thinking in a thunderclap.

‘Superb?this book taught me to see anew’ Daily Telegraph

‘A book that often borders on the sublime in its sentiment and beauty’ Sunday Times

Additional information

Weight 424 g
Dimensions 197 × 126 × 20 mm
Author

Publisher

Imprint

Cover

Paperback

Pages

264

Language

English

Edition
Dewey

759.949238 (edition:23)

Readership

General – Trade / Code: K