Carel Fabritius

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A 1654 self portrait

Carel Fabritius (bapt. Feb 27, 1622, Middenbeemster - Oct 12, 1654, Delft) was a Dutch painter and one of Rembrandt's most gifted pupils.

Fabritius was born in the ten-year old Beemster polder, where he is thought to have worked as a carpenter. In the early 1640s he studied at Rembrandt's studio in Amsterdam, along with his brother Barent Fabritius. In the early 1650s he moved to Delft, and joined the Delft painters' guild in 1652. He died young, caught in the explosion of the Delft gunpowder magazine on October 12, 1654, which destroyed a quarter of the city, along with his studio and many of his paintings. Only about a dozen paintings have survived.

Fabritius The Goldfinch (1654) showing his use of cool colour harmonies, delicate lighting effects, and a light background

Of all Rembrandt's pupils, Fabritius was the only one to develop his own artistic style. A typical Rembrandt portrait would have a plain dark background with the subject defined by spotlighting. In contrast, Fabritius' portraits feature delicately lit subjects against light-coloured, textured backgrounds. Moving away from the Renaissance focus on iconography, Fabritius became interested in the technical aspects of painting. He used cool colour harmonies to create shape in a luminous style of painting.

Fabritius was also interested in complex spatial effects, as can be seen in the exaggerated perspective of A View in Delft, with a Musical Instrument Seller's Stall (1652). He also showed excellent control of a heavily loaded brush, as in The Goldfinch (1654). All these qualities appear in the work of Delft's most famous painters, Vermeer and de Hooch; it is likely that Fabritius was a strong influence on them.

[edit] List of works

1640 Abraham de Potter, oil on canvas, 68.5 x 57 cm, Rijksmuseum Amsterdam
ca. 1640 The Beheading of John the Baptist, oil on canvas, 149 x 121 cm, Rijksmuseum Amsterdam
1643 The Raising of Lazarus, oil on canvas, Polish National Museum in Warsaw
1643/45 Hagar and the Angel, oil on canvas, 157.5 x 136 cm, Residenzgalerie Salzburg
1645 - 47 Mercury and Aglauros oil on canvas, 72.4 x 91.1 cm, Museum of Fine Arts Boston
1646 Portrait of an old man, oil on board, musée du Louvre
1646 - 1651 A Girl with a Broom, oil on canvas, 107.3 x 91.4 cm, signed as Rembrandt, National Gallery of Art Washington D.C
1650 Self-portrait, oil on board, 65 x 49 cm, Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen Rotterdam
1652 A View of Delft, with a Musical Instrument Seller's Stall, oil on canvas on pane, 15.4 x 31.6 cm, National Gallery London

Fabritius A View of Delft (1652) exploring an exaggerated perspective

1654 The Goldfinch, oil on panel, Mauritshuis The Hauge
1654 The Sentry, oil on canvas, 68 x 58 cm, Art Museum of Schwerin Schwerin
1654 Young Man in a Fur Cap, oil on canvas, 70.5 x 61.5 cm, National Gallery London (probably a self-portrait)