Laura Cumming’s recent book, ‘Thunderclap: A Memoir of Art and Life and Sudden Death’, was longlisted for the ‘Women’s Prize for Non-Fiction 2024’ and is the Winner of the Writer’s Prize for Non Fiction 2024.
Thunderclap recounts the morning of 12 October 1654, when a gunpowder explosion devastated the Dutch city of Delft. Among the fatalities was the painter Carel Fabritius, dead at thirty-two, leaving behind his haunting masterpiece The Goldfinch… It takes the reader from 17th-century Delft to the 20th-century Scottish islands, from Rembrandt’s studio to wartime America and contemporary London. It tells the story of the writer’s love of Dutch art of the ‘Golden age’, and is interwoven with memories of her father.
In this fascinating talk, Laura will explore the topics in Thunderclap and the links with the Dutch and Flemish artworks in the Ashmolean’s collection.