The Goldfinch

The Goldfinch, 1654, by Carel Fabritius is on view at the Frick Museum until January 19, 2014. Fabritius was a student of Rembrandt and teacher to Vermeer. This painting is one of a few paintings by Fabritius that have survived. The exhibit at the Frick coincides with release of the novel, The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt and together are attracting a lot of attention. If you plan to see this exhibit at the Frick try to attend during hours that will be less crowded.

from the novel by Donna Tartt:” ... the painting has taught me that we can speak to each other across time. ... if disaster and oblivion have followed this painting down through time - so too has love. Insofar as it is immortal (and it is) I have a small bright immutable part in that immortality. It exists; and it keeps on existing. And I add my own love to the history of people who have loved beautiful things, and looked out for them, and pulled them from the fire, and sought them when they were lost, and tried to preserve them and save them while passing them along literally fro hand to hand, singing out brilliantly from the wreck of time to the next generation of lovers, and the next.”