An emotionally resonant portrait of the artist as a young woman.
A young woman in 17th-century Amsterdam uncovers her artistic potential in D’Harlingue’s historical novel.
Artist Isaac van Brug embarks upon an African expedition in 1642 with Jan Van Herder to meet with the king of Congo and to visit Mbanza Congo—San Salvador—and the river Kwango to make sketches of the region. He loses his drawings in a storm. To supplement the family’s income, his children, Anneke and her brother, Lucas, learn to color maps at a young age under their mother Lysbeth’s tutelage. While map coloring inspires Lucas to see the world, Anneke becomes immersed in the craft and surpasses her mother’s skill, thus gaining the attention of Heer Meyert, of Joan Blaeu’s printing house. Anneke is invited to work at the printing house and subsequently impresses Joan Blaeu himself when she is commissioned to work at the home of the aristocratic Willem de Groot, where she becomes enmeshed in de Groot’s wife Helena’s adulterous scandal. Longing to create her own map, Anneke works on a representation of her father’s African journey. However, her dreams are not all that she imagined when entrenched family secrets lead to unimagined hardship (“If he had known how it would end, my father would have struck the paintbrush from my young hand”). The author’s emotionally resonant narrative follows the coming-of-age of a female artist fueled by a passion for her work and a deep longing to contribute something of value to the world. D’Harlingue deftly portrays her struggles and the complicated relationship dynamics that emerge as Anneke shares her work with others, ultimately exposing disturbing truths that harm all involved. The book is a convincing depiction of the period, in which women were not celebrated for their artistic accomplishments. Although there are moments when plot machinations seem to overshadow Anneke’s personal story, the novel is impressively researched, well paced, and compelling.
An emotionally resonant portrait of the artist as a young woman.
Reviewed by K.C. Finn for Readers' Favorite
The Map Colorist is a work of fiction in the historical fiction, literary, and women’s fiction subgenres. It is best suited to the general adult reading audience and was penned by author Rebecca D'Harlingue. In this charming, immersive, and enticing work, filled with high drama and sociocultural challenges of the time, we find ourselves in Amsterdam in 1660. In this hub of activity around map-making and illustrating, the cartography aspects are the domain of men, and women like Anneke van Brug are expected to be content with simply coloring the works of others. But Anneke aspires for more, and she’s hopeful that her time working for the wealthy and influential Willem de Groot will allow her to defy expectations.
Author Rebecca D'Harlingue has crafted a fantastic work of literary-styled fiction that packs much into a plot filled with infidelity, long-buried secrets, murder, mystery, and more. One of the features that really struck me was the immersive quality of the descriptions, going beyond the cinematic to give you a more visceral sense of the sounds, smells, and textures of this busy, bustling world of maps and merchants. Anneke is a very likable central character with plenty of depth and keen development around her family history, and I loved her way of presenting herself and working to try to get what she wants from a world so reluctant to acknowledge her talents. Overall, The Map Colorist will certainly please fans of strong female leads and trend breakers in history, and I’d highly recommend it for literary fiction fans looking for accomplished writing that also has a fast-paced, engaging plot.
