388 | Short Story: The Painting on the Canal (Intermediate English Story)

Title: The Painting on the Canal

Level: Upper-Intermediate (B2-C1)

Description

Sophie van der Berg inherits a narrow seventeenth-century Amsterdam canal house, along with its collection of old portraits — one of which, she gradually realizes, is watching her. Willem, trapped inside his own self-portrait for over three centuries after a magical accident, has been waiting for someone observant enough to finally notice him.

As Sophie and Willem grow steadily closer across weeks of late-night conversation, she becomes determined to find a way to free him from the canvas entirely — even if the...