The Last Painting of Sara De Vos

By spring, the financial situation of the de Vos family has worsened, especially since the potential market for their tulip paintings collapsed right along with the bursting of the tulip bubble. Barent still works at the bookbindery, while Sara has taken work as a catalogue illustrator; despite this work, Barent eventually receives notice that he will be sent to debtors’ prison unless he pays the remainder of what he owes the guild.

Sara, desperate to help, asks for permission from Joost Blim—the patronizing head of the Guild of St. Luke’s—to paint and sell some works to pay off the family’s debt. After listening to him complaining about the percentage of the Guild’s fees that go to the orphans of Amsterdam, Sara explains that painting is the only way she can imagine paying off the debt.

She doesn’t mention At the Edge of a Wood when Blim asks for some proof of the quality of her work; she knows she will never show the painting to anyone. Part of Blim’s consideration is the question of what work other women in the guild have done, and he notes they don’t paint much since they married. Sara says nothing to this point, but she remembers how hard it was to balance Kathrijn in her arms while trying to paint.