Leibniz – Chronicle of a Lost Painting

Female Dutch painter Aaltje van der Meer is commissioned by Queen Charlotte to paint her mentor and dear friend: German polymath and inventor Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz.

Can the essence of a person be captured through art? Initially sceptical – having clashed with the arrogant, conformist painter originally commissioned – Leibniz’s curiosity is piqued when Van der Meer declares, “What I don’t know, I can paint.” Soon, the two engage in philosophical back-and-forths, forming a bond over a series of portrait sittings. This intelligent character study and brain-stimulating costume drama showcases a great painter at work while illuminating one of the Enlightenment’s greatest minds, making a compelling case that sometimes the deepest scientific knowledge requires the arts to become comprehensible.

– Thomas Streekstra