BelEdit Book Reviews
Rembrandt’s Promise is an immersive, wonderfully atmospheric and beautifully written novel set in Amsterdam in the 1640s. It recounts the relationship between a servant and nursemaid, Geertje, and her employer, the painter Rembrandt.
My only quibble with Rembrandt’s Promise is that while many of the characters are vivid, I didn’t really get much of a sense of Rembrandt himself. We learn something about his dealings with Geertje, his wife, his students, clients and creditors, but at one remove, as through Geertje’s observations. To be fair, I didn’t care, however, as Geertje is the more interesting character!
Rembrandt comes across as a poor manager of his affairs and a spendthrift. Geertje, grateful for her precarious but nonetheless relatively secure position in his household, is eager to please. Her vulnerability is apparent: she is fully dependent on the men in her life – her brother and employer – and bound to submit to them at the risk of losing her place and her livelihood.
I will avoid spoilers. Suffice to say that she does eventually come to grief and goes through many travails, including a legal battle to assert her rights. It’s to be noted that while this is the story of the couple’s relationship, Rembrandt’s Promise is not ‘romance’. It’s historical fiction seen through a modern lens, notably highlighting the difficulty of women’s lives under a patriarchal system. Plus ça change…
Like all the best historical novels, Rembrandt’s Promise shines a spotlight on the lives of a few individuals to project the reader into the era and help us feel and understand what it might have been like to be there. Through domestic detail and insights into contemporary law and social structures, 17th century Amsterdam is illuminated.
Visually rich
It definitely helps that a large part of Amsterdam’s architectural heritage has been so well preserved that it’s easy to imagine oneself in the houses, streets and marketplaces described. Rembrandt’s house and artworks also clearly inspired the author: thanks to her sumptuous descriptions, you’ll find yourself imagining rooms, furnishings and people as Geertje would have seen them, and as he painted them, lit by shafts of sunlight or shadowy pools of oil lamplight.
Rembrandt’s Promise is an intriguing story and highly recommended for readers of historical fiction, especially fiction based on true stories.
My thanks to the author, publisher and NetGalley for the ARC — I was thrilled to receive and read it. My reviews are always 100% unbiased (regardless of how I acquire the book) AND 100% written by me, without AI.
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