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Carel Fabritius (1622-1654) was a
Netherlands|Dutch painter and one of Rembrandt's
most gifted pupils. 

Fabritius was born in Middenbeemster where he is
thought to have spent a while working 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, but only joined the Delft
painters' guild in 1652. He died young, when he
was caught in the Delft Explosion|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.



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
have light coloured, textured backgrounds and
delicately lit subjects. Moving away from the
Renaissance focus on iconography, Fabritius became
interested in the technical aspects of painting.
He used cool colour harmonies and a lighter
control of colour to create shape in a
luminarism|luminarist style of painting. 

Fabritius was also interested in perspectival
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
Johannes Vermeer|Vermeer and Pieter de Hooch|de
Hooch; it is likely that Fabritius was a strong
influence on them.

==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, Polish
National Museum in Warsaw
* 1643/45 Hagar and the Angel, oil on canvas,
157.5 x 136 cm,   Residenzgalerie Salzburg
* 1646 Portrait of an old man, oil on board, 
musÊe 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|National Gallery
London
* 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|National
Gallery London (probably a self portrait)

==References==
*The Oxford Dictionary of Art ISBN 0192800221 
*Biography at
http://www.residenzgalerie.at/en/WE370_2.htm
Residenzgalerie Salzburg
*http://www.abcgallery.com/R/rembrandt/fabritiusbi
o.html Olga's Gallery
*http://www.acmi.net.au/AIC/HOOGSTRATEN_BIO.html
Adventure's in Cybersound interest in unusual
perspectives.

==External links==
*Description of the View of Delft at the
http://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/cgi-bin/WebObjec
ts.dll/CollectionPublisher.woa/wa/work?workNumber=
NG3714 National Gallery London