Rembrandt's Promise by Barbara Leahy

Barbara Leahy’s Rembrandt’s Promise is a luminous and harrowing debut that reclaims the forgotten voice of Geertje Dircx, the woman once at the heart of one of Amsterdam’s most celebrated artistic households. Set during the Dutch Golden Age, Leahy’s novel vividly evokes the splendour and hypocrisy of 17th-century Amsterdam, peeling back the gilded surface of Rembrandt van Rijn’s fame to reveal a poignant story of betrayal, resilience, and quiet defiance.

When impoverished widow Geertje is sent by her brother to work as a nursemaid in Rembrandt’s home, she expects nothing more than honest labour and a roof over her head. Instead, she becomes entangled in the personal grief and artistic turbulence of a household in mourning. With Rembrandt’s wife Saskia gravely ill, Geertje finds herself assuming emotional and domestic responsibilities that tether her to the family more deeply than she anticipated. In time, she becomes Rembrandt’s lover, a role that offers the illusion of status and permanence, until the promise it rests on begins to crumble.

Told through Geertje’s perspective, the novel is both all encompassing and emotionally intense. Leahy’s decision to use the first person lends the narrative an aching intimacy; readers are placed squarely inside Geertje’s experience as she navigates the shifting power dynamics of a world that offers women little protection. What begins as a hopeful entanglement soon darkens into exploitation, and Geertje’s slow realisation that her love and labour are disposable is devastatingly rendered.

Leahy excels at portraying the tensions between class, gender, and power. The novel’s Amsterdam is a bustling, contradictory place teeming with commerce and culture, yet rife with patriarchal injustice and social inequality. Through careful historical detail, from the scent of oil paints in the studio to the claustrophobic stench of the House of Correction in Gouda, Leahy brings the era to life without ever sacrificing narrative momentum.

Central to the novel is its feminist lens. Geertje is no passive victim, and her battle for justice, after Rembrandt replaces her with a younger maid and has her

institutionalised to silence her, is both tragic and heroic. Her resilience in the face of societal condemnation and personal betrayal is deeply affecting. While the novel never lets Rembrandt off the hook, it resists caricature. He is portrayed not as a villain, but as a man shaped by his era’s privileges and limitations: flawed, selfish, and ultimately weak.

The supporting cast adds texture and warmth, particularly the kindly cobbler Otto, whose unwavering friendship offers Geertje rare kindness in a world short on mercy. These human connections anchor the novel’s emotional weight and highlight the vital role of compassion in survival.

Rembrandt’s Promise is a gorgeously written, emotionally charged novel that blends historical richness with narrative urgency. Barbara Leahy’s meticulous research and lyrical prose make this a standout debut, breathing life into a story long overshadowed by its male counterpart. For readers of Stacey Halls, Tracy Chevalier, and Maggie O’Farrell, this is essential reading, both a lament and a reclamation.

Reviewer: Chris Reed

Allen & Unwin