Van Rijn

by SarahEmilyMiano (Author)

• Used

  Hardcover
  2006

  $4.33

  Pieter Blaeu, a young publisher from a family of famous cartographers, meets the aged, destitute painter, Rembrandt van Rijn, on a tour of artists' studios in 1667, and is quickly enticed into his theatre of life through a strange mixture of admiration and repulsion. As Pieter delves into this shadowy world, he crosses paths with a fanciful troupe of characters, both living and dead: the painter's relatives, friends, sitters and patrons, whose stories are sometimes bawdy and humorous, at other times philosophical and macabre. Meanwhile, Rembrandt is keeping a private journal, a dog-eared black tablet where he records everything from his rules of art and life to his dramas and recipes-or what he calls `the caprices of my restless brain'.

  When Pieter encounters a poet named Clara whose interest in Rembrandt equals his own, a love story emerges. Together the lovers attempt to unmask an ambitious man in pursuit of a fugitive truth, from his ascent to fame and wealth to his descent into unpopularity and poverty, seeking clues about his character . . . if only he weren't such a master at playing hide-and-seek.

  `Miano's writing displays all the verve, erudition and originality one might expect from such a hotly tipped new talent' Guardian

• Used

  Paperback
  2007

  $3.25

  Amsterdam, 1667. Pieter Blaeu, a young publisher, meets the aged, destitute painter Rembrandt van Rijn, and is powerfully drawn into his orbit. Together with a poet named Clara he begins a pursuit of the elusive man's confidence, in a quest that is at once a love affair and a layered, luminous portrait of a most mysterious artist and his world.

  `Here are the sights, smells, sounds and colours of the Dutch golden age alchemised into fictional gold . . . The marriage of art, history and fiction has rarely been so alive. A cause for celebration' The Times

  `It is no mean feat for a young writer to pitch herself against the great master and attempt to achieve in prose the explorations of identity that Rembrandt achieved in paint . . . Van Rijn returns us to [the paintings] with a renewed sense of wonder' TLS

  'An enticing journey into the past, well observed and researched, and providing a tour of the alternative artistic life of the seventeenth century' Sunday Times