Sara will watch as the only child God has granted her withers and retreats.
-- Narrator (Amsterdam/Berckhey, Spring 1656)

Importance: As Sara heads out with her husband and daughter to paint the scene of a beached whale, her daughter will be infected with illness by a local farm boy. The fever will kill Kathrijn a few nights later. Because of this, Sarah is devastated and cannot bring herself to paint much. This will change by the winter.

Something about the light, about the girl emerging alone from the wood, rouses her to the canvas. Painting a still life suddenly seems unimaginable.
-- Narrator (Amsterdam/Berckhey, Spring 1656)

Importance: Devastated by the death of her daughter, Sara is unable to paint much. However, inspiration strikes her when she sees a young girl emerge from the woods overlooking a frozen river. This becomes the foundation of Sara’s painting “At the Edge of a Wood.” The painting itself will come to serve as the centerpiece...