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Thunderclap
Thunderclap: A Memoir of Art and Life and Sudden Death | Laura Cumming
25 posts | 13 read | 13 to read
New York Times bestselling author and art critic Laura Cumming reveals the fascinating, little-known story of the Thunderclap�the massive explosion at a gunpowder store in Holland that killed Carel Fabritius, renowned painter of The (…more)
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charl08
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Anyone who has ever seen goldfinches fluttering and chattering and alighting on seedheads in meadows, or watched them bumbling through the thistledown they love, will know why the word charm was chosen for their collective noun. A charm of goldfinches soars at dusk, swoops at dawn, sings upliftingly in summer trees. In flight, the yellow stripe spreads into a golden cape.

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charl08
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[CT scans of The Goldfinch] ...show...the painting bears the traces of a blast, the minuscule indentations of hurtling matter, broken shards, hard pellets blown scattershot....
the explosion registered in a surface that did not split or shatter because it was not dry. The Goldfinch was still wet, still drying
.... when I stand in front of this painting it carries the last of his energy....
The painting lives. The creator survives.

charl08 Photo is work by Eileen Agar Room with a view of the moon 1w
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charl08
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I once saw, in a hotel in Algiers, a Dutch still life of redcurrants glinting silver dish and was on a momentarily transported to a long-ago Delft day. Paintings can take you anywhere, but they are also a land in themselves, a society, a place to be.
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So many fascinating pictures reproduced in this book.

Butterfinger It makes you wonder what was being said. So evocative. 2w
48 likes1 comment
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Texreader
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Pickpick

Focusing on Dutch artist C. Fabritius and his painting A View of Delft with a Musical Instrument Seller‘s Stall, painted in 1652, the author tells Fabritius‘s story, her own, her father‘s, Delftt, and other Dutch artists. In other words, it is an all-encompassing book about Dutch art history but always comes back to Fabritius. He was killed as a result of a “thunderclap” of an explosion of stored gunpowder near his house, but that killed many ⬇️

Texreader more. Fabritius‘s life was cut very short and the author wonders what more he could have created. There‘s an excellent examination of one of his most famous works, The Goldfinch. I really liked the audiobook—the author has a beautiful and calming voice—but you must have the ebook or real book so you can look at the artwork while listening to her. #Netherlands #foodandlit @Catsandbooks 1mo
Catsandbooks I believe the Goldfinch painting is the center of the novel The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt. I read it a few years ago and enjoyed it! 1mo
Sace Sounds fascinating! 1mo
AnishaInkspill @Texreader good to read your review, I got this last year as it looked really interesting 1mo
AnishaInkspill @Catsandbooks good to know, I have this on my tbr 1mo
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Texreader
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I need to post more snapshots of food, here painted by Adriaen Coorte in 1697 since I‘m reading the tagged book for #Netherlands #foodandlit @Catsandbooks

Catsandbooks Is that asparagus? 1mo
Texreader @Catsandbooks Yes. I forgot to say that!! 😁 1mo
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Texreader
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Texreader
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AnneCecilie I enjoyed this. All the beautiful artwork 2mo
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jenniferw88
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#12booksof2024 #april @Andrew65

Another women's prize for non-fiction book.

Andrew65 Sounds an interesting read. 2mo
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Lindy
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Pickpick

I really enjoyed this book about 17th-century Dutch art! The audiobook is read by the author, a British art critic & historian. I listened while following along in the print edition, which has many full-colour illustrations of the paintings described. Laura Cumming‘s father was also a painter & so there‘s a lovely memoir aspect also, and thoughtful remarks on what art contributes to our lives.

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Lindy
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-Paintings can take you anywhere, but they are also a land in themselves, a society, a place to be.

charl08 I've just posted this quote! I'd love to know more about the painting- is it a favourite? 2w
Lindy @charl08 😊 I am very fond of David Milne‘s work. This one is at the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria. It‘s called Painting Place No. 1, 1926. 2w
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Lindy
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My latest on BookTube includes Art & Architecture in Victoria BC + 4 Recent Reads + a Corn Roast
https://youtu.be/opO5RXbFwsc

#CanadianAuthor #WomenInTranslation #Art #Audiobooks

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jlhammar
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Pickpick

Really enjoyed this. Had me planning my next art museum visit. #WomensPrizeNF

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Becker
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Pickpick

3.5🌟 This was good but I think it could have been better. It was lacking structure and purpose. However I still got quite a bit out of it. It had me googling Dutch art for hours and I learned a lot from it. I don‘t think you would enjoy this book if you weren‘t interested in art at some level. 🎨

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ChaoticMissAdventures
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Pickpick

Good but not great. I can both see why this made the women's prize long list and why it didn't make the short list. Similar to Wifedom I thought there was too much of the author in this book. The time she is choosing to talk about is fascinating and it didn't need personal story embellishments. I feel like authors do this when they cannot find enough source material. The book itself is gorgeous, and I did learn a lot so it is still a pick!

ChaoticMissAdventures I am glad the WP had this listed, I never would have found it on my own and it is a great primer since I plan this year to read 9mo
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ChaoticMissAdventures
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"I cannot get enough Dutch art. You can turn to this other world - and it is a picture world as no other, a whole society visualized through time and place, seasons and generations, moment by moment - and live inside it in your thoughts."

The painting that starts the book.

Becker I‘m also reading this right now and really enjoying the art discussions. 9mo
AnneCecilie I loved this too, and particularly how Dutch art focuses on the everyday 9mo
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ChaoticMissAdventures
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"We see pictures in time and place. We cannot see them otherwise. They are fragments of our lives, moments of existence that may be as unremarkable as rain or as startling as a clap of thunder."

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jenniferw88
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jenniferw88
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Pickpick
58 likes3 comments
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AnneCecilie
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Pickpick

A book of twos; one part is about the The Golden Age of Dutch art focusing mainly on Delft. And I‘ve been to Delft and I love art so I loved this part. Who knew Dutch Art where so available to its citizens and not something for just the royals and nobility? The other part is about her and her parents. Her father was an artist. I found this part interesting. I loved how she used her own experiences to explain the Dutch artists.

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Leniverse
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Had to google this painting as it isn't printed in the book, and the description fascinated me. Memorial portrait made by siblings Gerard and Gesina Ter Borch after the death of their youngest brother, Moses who fell in battle against the English. Look at that hair! The pose! The pieces of his armour! The time pieces! The snake! The random skull and puppy and huge conch shell. ❤️💔

tpixie Amazing. I love to google as I read- even though it slows me down!!! 10mo
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AnneCecilie
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This was the masterpiece that drew Marcel Proust out of his cork-lined room in Paris for the last time. He had seen it once before, in a visit to The Hague in 1902. It was to him ‘the most beautiful painting in the world‘. Almost twenty years later, suffering from lung disease, he made a shorter but more arduous pilgrimage from his apartment in boulevard Malesherbes, near the Madeleine, across four streets to the Jeu de Paume,

AnneCecilie where it was appearing on its travels in 1921. (Writing about Vermeer‘s View of Delft, pictured) 10mo
charl08 Beautiful painting. 10mo
batsy That's lovely. 10mo
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jlhammar
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The spoils of today‘s bookshop visit!

squirrelbrain Ooh, good haul! ❤️ 10mo
Tamra 👏🏾👏🏾 10mo
batsy Nice! 10mo
sarahbarnes Reading Enter Ghost right now. It‘s very good. 10mo
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Hooked_on_books
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Pickpick

This is a book that shouldn‘t work. It meanders all over the place and trying to write an outline for it would be an exercise in futility. Yet, somehow, these musings on (mainly) Dutch art, primarily that of Carel Fabritius, the author‘s painter father, artists lives and her own life comes together as a pretty magical read. The illustrations are great, but there was still plenty I was googling. Completely fascinating.

Hooked_on_books Helen, I‘m so glad you mentioned the format in your review. I‘m really glad I ended up with the print and not audio. I actually think the audio would work really well if one was sitting and looking at the images while listening, but I‘m always doing other stuff while listening to audiobooks and I would have missed out. @squirrelbrain 10mo
squirrelbrain I‘m glad you went with print! I was doing other stuff too whilst listening (mainly driving so definitely couldn‘t look stuff up! 😬). I‘m getting the digital print copy from BorrowBox in about 2 weeks and looking forward to seeing the pictures. 10mo
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youneverarrived
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Pickpick

This was beautifully told. I loved listening to the author tell of Dutch paintings & artists, Fabritius & her father‘s paintings - you can tell it‘s something she‘s knowledgeable & passionate about. I listened on Spotify which came with a pdf of all the paintings she discusses but I always listen when I‘m on the go so couldn‘t keep track of which paintings she was discussing. As much as I liked the audio I‘d recommend going print or mix the two.

Leniverse This is waiting for me at the library, so I guess it will be my next NF. The shortlist has reshuffled all my plans 😅 11mo
BarbaraBB This sounds good. 11mo
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squirrelbrain I wished I‘d done print too. In fact I‘m on the BorrowBox waiting list for it. 11mo
youneverarrived @Leniverse I know what you mean 😆 I‘m hoping this one I‘ve got reserved will be available soon as it‘s the one I‘m most interested in reading 10mo
youneverarrived @BarbaraBB it was a great read 👍 10mo
youneverarrived @squirrelbrain I think seeing the paintings whilst reading would have added to it. It looks like a gorgeous book. 10mo
Leniverse @youneverarrived Doppelganger is the only one I've read so far, and I started that before the longlist was even announced 🤪 Non-fiction takes me so long. And Doppelganger was heavy going at times. But it was also really interesting and extremely relevant, so well worth the effort. 10mo
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squirrelbrain
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Pickpick

This #womensprize for NF long-lister is still a pick, but I chose the wrong format (audio).The author describes so many paintings and I wanted to see them - not the best idea when you listen whilst driving, as I mostly do. 😬

Even when I was at home, as all of the artists are Dutch, I couldn‘t find many of them as I didn‘t know how to spell their names. I‘ve reserved the (digital) print copy so I can re-read but it‘s not available until ⬇️

squirrelbrain ….the end of April. I also felt that the book was more weighted towards Fabritius and Dutch art whereas there should have been more about her father. 11mo
rockpools Ohhh, interesting. I actually just started this last night on ebook, and I‘m surprised how much I‘m loving it. (C17th Dutch Art is NOT one of my pet subjects!) But yes, you definitely need the pictures. I‘m also going in not having read anything else by her, so I think my lack of expectations is maybe a help. 11mo
squirrelbrain @rockpools - I didn‘t notice so much at the start, but she introduces more and more artists as she goes along, and not well-known ones either. I love her narration though, so maybe would have also felt like I was missing out if I‘d done print. I listened to On Chapel Sands too - I think you‘d really like it. 11mo
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rockpools @squirrelbrain 👍I‘ve wishlisted that on audio, for later. Thanks for the recommendation. I think I mentally filed it as True Crime when it came out, so ignored all the glowing reviews. Will definitely take a listen. 11mo
BarbaraBB Interesting. Some 17th century Dutch painters were real masters. 11mo
ChaoticMissAdventures This is so good to know, thanks! Going to make sure I have the physical book on hold. 11mo
Hooked_on_books Oh, that‘s good to know. I have access to the audio through Everand, but clearly that‘s not the way I should go. 11mo
youneverarrived As much as I‘m enjoying the audio I agree it would be better in print (I saw the hardback in a bookshop I was in yesterday and had a quick look through 😍). 11mo
squirrelbrain Ooh, did it have pictures? @youneverarrived 11mo
youneverarrived It did, full page pictures of the paintings - it would be a beautiful book to own 😍 11mo
squirrelbrain Ohhhhh…I don‘t need any more books…I don‘t need any more books. Just tagging you both in @ChaoticMissAdventures @Hooked_on_books - sounds like you definitely need a ‘real‘ book with this one. Thanks Katie! @youneverarrived 11mo
ChaoticMissAdventures @squirrelbrain my library has a copy! There is a wait-list, but I think I will take the time to wait on it. I am trying to be so much better this year about not buying things unless I read and loved them but it is so hard with the Women's Prize! 11mo
Hooked_on_books I‘ve already put the print book on hold at my library. 😬 I‘m slowly succumbing to reading this list soon rather than waiting! 11mo
squirrelbrain @ChaoticMissAdventures @Hooked_on_books - I‘ve also put the print book on hold at the library…. 11mo
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