Rembrant’s Mirror and reflections of Amsterdam
Rembrandt’s Mirror explores the three women of Rembrandt’s life, and the towering passions of the artist, seen through the eyes of his last, great love, Hendrickje. Rembrandt was a man of pained passion, obsessive love for his art and a confused and tortured soul. If you want to know the man’s story then you have to look at his paintings for they are his mirror The chapters named after titles of his painting show how he came to paint them and see his story unfold…
Reflections of Rembrandt (c) the booktrail
Some of the paintings and characters in the novel revealed by his paintings..
The Supper at Emmaus (1648), Louvre, Paris, signed and dated
Saskia Lying in Bed, a Woman sitting at her Feet (c.1635–38), Staatliche Graphische Sammlung, Munich
Self-Portrait by a Window (1648), Rijksmuseum
Portrait of Jan Six (1654), Six Collection
The Anatomy Lesson of Dr. Nicolaes Tulp (1632), Mauritshuis, The Hague
The Jewish Bride (c1665–1669), Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam. Also known asIsaak and Rebecca
What a way to see the world through Rembrandt’s eyes, not only the city of Amsterdam and the lives of the women he loved and lost, but also via his world of art and painting. Each chapter reveals a new layer of paint, a new angle of the world that we think we know from Rembrandt’s paintings but in reality there was a lot more hiding underneath each layer and each brushstroke.
Turns out each painting was done to show a part of his life – a snapshot of life before cameras were even invented. Who are the people in his paintings,what is the meaning of certain objects in paintings and who was the man they called Rembrandt?
Kim Devereux paints quite the picture – transports you to a time and place and puts you right at the spyhole in the house so you can see everything going on as if you were there for real.
What a world to witness via paintings and fiction mixed into a single tantalising palette of colour and richness.
