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