The Mauritshuis museum in The Hague, Netherlands is designed with many protruding panels giving a room more wall space then it might otherwise have. While walking around the museum, I looked with anticipation around each protruding panel for the works of art that would be displayed in these alcoves. On one of the walls, I found The Goldfinch by Carel Fabritius. This small, unassuming work would not usually catch my eye, however when I saw it there was a rush of recognition. It was not the work itself that drew me to it, but the memories surrounding it. I recognized having studied it in school and the loneliness of being in a foreign land melted away as I saw something that connected me to my life at home.
There is something so quiet about this painting, which was done in the last year of the young artist’s life. There is a lightness of spirit, perhaps due to the bright simple background.
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