The Rembrandt Secret
Page 40
Relieved, Marshall stared into the unfathomable gaze of Geertje Dircx. He saw in her eyes his father’s eyes, Charlotte Gorday’s eyes, Nicolai Kapinski’s eyes. And he saw in her a history which deserved to be told. Her face was every woman’s face; every human’s face who had ever had a history to tell. If the chronicle was, in part, wrong, it was also, in part, right.
Marshall turned to go home. He would destroy Samuel Hemmings’ confession and let the Rembrandt letters stand – as a final and lasting testimony to Geertje Dircx.
AFTERWORD
Geertje Dircx was Rembrandt’s lover and the dry nurse to his son, Titus. Rembrandt loved her enough to give her some of his late wife’s jewellery, but she fell out of favour with the painter. It seems very probable that she was ousted by his next mistress, Hendrickje Stoffels. Taking Rembrandt to court, Geertje sued the artist for breach of promise, saying that he had asked her to marry him and given her a ring.
A long battle commenced. Rembrandt denied promising to marry Geertje and offered her a sum of money to remove herself from his house and life. Geertje did not agree and caused a scene in court. Troublesome and difficult, she became irksome to Rembrandt. In a premeditated and vindictive act, he convinced her brother, nephew, and neighbours to give evidence against her, to prove that she was a promiscuous troublemaker.
Their damning testimony resulted in Geertje Dircx being sentenced to twelve years’ hard labour and incarcerated at the House of Corrections – a prison/madhouse – in Gouda.
These are true and documented facts on which this novel is based; the rest is open to interpretation.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Brown, Christopher, Rembrandt, The Master and his Workshop, Yale University Press
Sonnenburg, Hubert von, Rembrandt/Not Rembrandt in the Metropolitan Museum: Aspects of Connoisseurship Metropolitan Museum of Art
Constable, W. G., The Painter’s Workshop, Dover Publications
Esteban, Claude, Rembrandt, Ferndale Editions
Bredius, Abraham, The paintings of Rembrandt, Phaidon
Lloyd Williams, Julia, Rembrandt’s Women, Prestel
Boon, K. G., Rembrandt: the complete etchings, Abrams
Note: Details on the convent in H. C. Brouwer,
‘Stedebouwkundige veranderingen …’ in exh.cat.
De Stad Delft, cultuur en maatschappij van 1752–1667,
Vol. I, pp. 37–38. Museum Prinsenhof, Delft, 1981.
Table of Contents
Cover Page
Title Page
Dedication
Copyright Page
BOOK ONE
PROLOGUE
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
BOOK TWO
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
BOOK THREE
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
BOOK FOUR
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
BOOK FIVE
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
AFTERWORD
BIBLIOGRAPHY