Taking the dramatic 1654 explosion in Delft that killed the painter Carel Fabritius as a springboard for a profound meditation on Dutch art and culture, the author of On Chapel Sands casts light on an era of astonishing artistic creativity and innovation.
Winner of the Non-Fiction Writers' Prize 2024
Shortlisted for the Women's Prize for Non-Fiction 2024
From the Sunday Times-bestselling author of On Chapel Sands
'We see with everything that we are'
On the morning of 12 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. She shares too her relationship with her father, the Scottish artist James Cumming, who had his own deep connection to Dutch painting, and who taught her about colour, light and the rewards of looking deeply.
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. This is also a book about the precariousness of human life - the way it may be snatched from us in an instant. What can art do to sustain us? The work that survives tells its own compelling story in these pages.
Publisher: Vintage Publishing
ISBN: 9781529922530
Number of pages: 272
Weight: 427 g
Dimensions: 197 x 128 x 20 mm
A book that often borders on the sublime in its sentiment and beauty - Sunday Times
This is an extraordinary book, full of beauty and feeling and immediacy and depth (and impressive detective work)...Thunderclap is a work of genius - India Knight
One of the most captivating books I have ever read… Delightful, intimate, and dotted with beautiful art. A wonderful read (or a great present) for anyone who loves stories and art - Nina Stibbe
Cumming is a word-painter ... When something fascinates Laura Cumming, she makes sure, with her beguiling prose, that we too are caught up in her fascination - The Times
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 - New York Times
Exquisite... [Cumming's] pages are themselves lovely exercises in poetic vision and stay with you long after you finish - Simon Schama, author of BELONGING, Guardian
[A] lustrous meditation on the lives and after-lives of artists ... with a novelist's pace, a critic's eye, a daughter's heart - Financial Times
A superb tribute to the masterpieces of the Dutch Golden Age, and the father who taught her how to see them ... In asking why we return to paintings across decades and centuries, this book taught me to see anew - Telegraph
[A] fascinating amalgam of insightful art appreciation and a haunting personal story - Sunday Times, Books of the Year*
An intriguing, ambitious and tender blend of art history and personal memoir, this beautifully illustrated book is one to read and re-read - Daily Mail, Books of the Year*
The life-like painting ‘The Goldfinch’, painted by the Dutch artist Carel Fabritius, who died in a gunpowder warehouse explosion in 1654, inspired many novels. The painting was found among the debris where he, his... More
Part of the wonder of art is the singular connection we form, invisible strings that draw us to one piece and not another. It's deeply personal and all but indefinable; Cummings is able to lay it on the page... More
‘Thunderclap’ by Laura Cumming is a captivating celebration of Dutch art as well as a moving exploration of the power of paintings for creator and audience alike.
It centres on the elusive life of 17th-century...
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