Vermeer to Eternity Quotes

“sometimes when ambitions burn out they do so gently.”
― Anthony Horowitz, Vermeer to Eternity

“It’s like that poem Larkin wrote. “I have started to say ‘A quarter of a century’/ Or ‘thirty years back’ /About my own life/It makes me breathless…”
― Anthony Horowitz, Vermeer to Eternity

“I should have seen it straight away,” he went on. “You mean… there was no ghost?” “No. There was a ghost. I didn’t imagine it. It was there.” Suddenly there were tears in his eyes. “But I should have seen… the wig, the pipe, the clothes. Even the language. It was all fake. I should have seen that. He was a trickster – and he tricked me.” “Who?” “It wasn’t the ghost of Vermeer. It was the ghost of Van Meegeren pretending to be Vermeer.” And with that he was gone, disappearing along the pavement and into the evening crowd.”
― Anthony Horowitz, Vermeer to Eternity

“But the final nail in the coffin was the discovery of Indian ink across the entire surface and again this pointed directly to Van Meegeren. Apparently it worked like this. Once the forger had varnished his work, he would cover it with a layer of Indian ink which would sink into the crevices in the varnish and dry naturally. He would then clean the rest off. What remained would be indistinguishable from dust, giving the painting its antique, lived-in feel. This was one of his favourite techniques. But of course Indian ink would have been entirely alien to Vermeer.”
― Anthony Horowitz, Vermeer to Eternity

“It was named after Vasily Lavrov, one of those rather dubious Russian oligarchs who pop in and out of British life, treating our culture and traditions – I always think – like items on a supermarket shelf.”
― Anthony Horowitz, Vermeer to Eternity

“So let us examine the evidence. I would say that the title of this painting would be The Sick Child which was certainly a popular subject in Dutch genre art of this period. One thinks of the version from 1660, painted by Gabriel Metsu and now in the Rijksmuseum. It is certainly what Gombrich called ‘a still life with human beings’. The composition and the use of light are both quite unmistakably Vermeer. We have the light entering from an unseen source, in this case the partly covered window, and you will see how it ripples across the tapestry at the back of the painting and falls onto the forearm and the porcelain jug of the servant woman or the nurse. I fancy I’ve seen that jug before. The Girl With the Wineglass. 1659. Exactly the same item appears on the table – but there is nothing surprising about that. Vermeer had quite a collection of props – jugs, pewter plates – which he used in his work. This would seem to be a late work… 1672, three years before the artist died. He dated his work only rarely, by the way. Just twice. As for the signature, it is concomitant with a signature that Vermeer used on a number of occasions. The I, of course, stands for Johannes and you will see that it sits directly above the M – or rather, the V that is contained inside the M. You see? The same letter does double service. There is not very much more to add. The yellows and the reds – and in particular the blues – have a close association with Vermeer’s palette. There is clear evidence of the pointillé technique… the little touches of paint that break up the light. And although it is hard to see with the naked eye, I would be prepared to bet that this has been painted with a brush made of badger hair, which is exactly what Vermeer used.” He smiled but it came and went so quickly that I wasn’t certain it had been there at all. “I think that’s all.”
― Anthony Horowitz, Vermeer to Eternity

“To be fair though, he did come to the two major events in my life – my marriage to Sandra and the first night of my comedy, “Dog’s Dinner” (“James Taylor is clearly a playwright to look out for,” wrote the Evening Standard. “And at all costs avoided.”) God, it’s awful how quickly things move forward. It’s like that poem Larkin wrote. “I have started to say ‘A quarter of a century’/ Or ‘thirty years back’ /About my own life/It makes me breathless…” Quite.”
― Anthony Horowitz, Vermeer to Eternity

“it was fairly clear to me that I was never going to have my premiere at the Olivier but sometimes when ambitions burn out they do so gently. Some are born great, some achieve greatness but some actually realize that greatness probably wasn’t for them and settle with what they’ve got. I couldn’t complain.”
― Anthony Horowitz, Vermeer to Eternity