Description
Reminiscent of Tracy Chevalier's best-selling Girl with a Pearl Earring, Rembrandt's Whore is the fictional monologue of Hendrickje Stoffels, Rembrandt's mistress, with whom he spent the last twenty years of his life. A sensitive innocent, Hendrickje escapes the harsh realities of her garrison hometown to become a servant in Rembrandt's household. She soon becomes his lover and closest confidante, filling the void left by the death of his wife and two of their children. Enlightened by the positive values of beauty, truth, love, and art, Hendrickje is fated to discover the hypocrisy and fickleness of Amsterdam society, which ostracizes her and precipitates Rembrandt's final collapse. Matton has researched not only Rembrandt's life and works but also contemporary Amsterdam and the Black Death. In a serene, sensuous style of writing she provides an intriguing and intimate view into the painter's life.
