Barbara Leahy: Rembrandt’s Promise
- €12
- Bantry House – Loggia
- 18/07/2025 - 10:00 am
Note: This event is now sold out. If you would like to join the waiting list please call our box office +3532752788 or email info@westcorkmusic.ie (with your name, mobile number and numbers of tickets requested). Our box office is open Mon-Fri 9.30am-5.30pm
Barbara Leahy’s Rembrandt’s Promise opens in 1642. The Dutch Golden Age is underway, with rapidly expanding Amsterdam at the height of its powers. Geertje, an impoverished widow from Edam, enters a melting pot of wealth and culture when she becomes nursemaid in the house of renowned painter, Rembrandt.
Barbara is a debut novelist from Cork and she was a winner of the Irish Writers’ Centre Novel Fair in 2023. She will be in conversation with Deirdre O’Shaughnessy.
“An orange sun burns low in the sky. I fold my arms on the sill, cup my elbows. Pink clouds streak a horizon of rooftops, spires, the sails of distant windmills. Soon the master will be home. Last night, I made him doubt me. This time, I will make him certain.”
Still grieving the deaths of her husband and stillborn son, Geertje soon bonds with her infant charge, Titus. She makes new friends and her confidence grows. After Rembrandt’s wife, Saskia, dies, Geertje grows close to the ardent but volatile painter, despite her loyal cousin Trijn warning her to leave his house. Realising she has idealised her late husband, Geertje begins a passionate affair with Rembrandt.
Writers
Writer
