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Carel Fabritius




Carel Fabritius ( 1622 - 1654 ) was a 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, 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.

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 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, Vermeer and 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

  • 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


  • 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)



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