I Am Rembrandt's Duaghter by Lynn Cullen

The story is told through the eyes and heart of Rembrandt’s daughter, Cornelia. Very little is known about her. The woven story is a pure imagination of the author.

There are two plots set apart by a few years. In the first one, Cornelia is a seven year old girl with her mom still living. In the second, she is coming of age when girls start thinking about marriage, her mom is gone, and her half-brother is getting married. In both stories, the famous painter is already struggling, passed his prime fame, because he chose the work he sees through God, showing light in his painting, using thick texture, which is being seen as out of style by rich customers.

With simple prose, the author makes the girl’s feelings real, her pain of her father never marrying her mother, her father never acknowledging her or painting her, or teaching her to paint. Her pain of her father never taking interest in her and at the same time forbidding her the love she yearns for a young in-training painter from a privileged family. But soon enough she learns why.

The voice of Cornelia sounds very credible. The story is absorbing. It is a quick and easy read.

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