Ambitions, desires, and dreams breed a grand deception-and as the lies multiply, events move toward a thrilling and tragic climax. But as Van Loos begins to capture Sophia's likeness on canvas, a slow passion begins to burn between the beautiful young wife and the talented artist.Īs the portrait unfolds, so a slow dance is begun among the household's inhabitants.
In a bid for immortality, he commissions a portrait of them both by the talented young painter Jan van Loos.
She is the prize he desires, the woman he hopes will bring him the joy that not even his considerable fortune can buy.Ĭornelis yearns for an heir, but so far he and Sophia have failed to produce one. But for wealthy merchant Cornelis Sandvoort, it is his young and beautiful wife, Sophia, who stirs his soul. Everywhere men are seduced by the fantastic exotic flower. In 1630s Amsterdam, tulipomania has seized the populace. The more azen is weighs, the more money for him.A sensual tale of art, lust, and deception-now a major motion picture “The heavier the bulb, the more azen it weighs.
the whole novel gives a real insight into Amsterdam merchant life at that time. Tulipmania is an interesting theme – how much bulbs were bought and sold for, how much trade and double dealing went on down by the docks. Comely women are tulips their skirts are petals, swinging around the pollen-dusted stigmas of their legs” “Everything he sees speaks Tulips to him. One of the painters describes the bulbs of the Tulip like a man possessed – Deborah Moggach’s painting could go alongside any of those artists she admires and includes in the book – Rembrandt, Vermeer amongst others. It’s the literary equivalent of lots of rapid brush strokes smacked and sprayed across a blank canvas of a world poised between religion and secularism, tradition and trade. Amsterdam is beautifully evoked as is the setting and atmosphere of the dirty noisy canals and the excited panic and greed of the traders.Īlthough historical and quite serious, Tulip Fever is the equivalent of sitting on the knee of a bawdy character in a backstreet bar whilst swigging and spilling their beer as they jolt you up and down.
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