Thunderclap

A book that often borders on the sublime in its sentiment and beauty * Sunday Times *
This is an extraordinary book, full of beauty and feeling and immediacy and depth (and impressive detective work)…Thunderclap is a work of genius – India Knight
One of the most captivating books I have ever read… Delightful, intimate, and dotted with beautiful art. A wonderful read (or a great present) for anyone who loves stories and art * Nina Stibbe *
Cumming is a word-painter … When something fascinates Laura Cumming, she makes sure, with her beguiling prose, that we too are caught up in her fascination * The Times *
Cumming clearly loves these paintings, and by weaving together vivid evocations of ones that particularly move her with brief biographies of the men and women who painted them, she invites us to share that love * New York Times *
Exquisite… [Cumming’s] pages are themselves lovely exercises in poetic vision and stay with you long after you finish – Simon Schama, author of BELONGING * Guardian *
[A] lustrous meditation on the lives and after-lives of artists … with a novelist’s pace, a critic’s eye, a daughter’s heart * Financial Times *
A superb tribute to the masterpieces of the Dutch Golden Age, and the father who taught her how to see them … In asking why we return to paintings across decades and centuries, this book taught me to see anew * Telegraph *
[A] fascinating amalgam of insightful art appreciation and a haunting personal story * Sunday Times, Books of the Year *
An intriguing, ambitious and tender blend of art history and personal memoir, this beautifully illustrated book is one to read and re-read * Daily Mail, Books of the Year *

Laura Cumming has been chief art critic of the Observer since 1999. Her books include A Face to the World- On Self-Portraits (2009) and The Vanishing Man- In Pursuit of Velazquez (2016) which won the James Tait Black Biography Prize. Her family memoir, On Chapel Sands- my Mother and other Missing Persons (2019) was a Sunday Times bestseller and shortlisted for the Baillie Gifford, Costa and Rathbone’s Folio prizes.

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