FABRITIUS, CAREL (1624?-16S4), Dutch painter. The date and place of his birth is unknown. From a description of Delft dated 1667, wherein it is said that the master was killed in an explosion at Delft on Oct. 12, 1654, and that he was then about 3o years of age we learn that he must have been born about 1624. He was a pupil of Rembrandt, and he appears as a serious and cultivated artist in the conversation on art of Rem brandt's pupils which is reported by Hoogstraten. In 165o he married Agathe van Pruyssen, a widow in Delft, and in 1652 he entered the painters' gild in that city. He was a master of the first rank, an independent spirit who did not lose his own in dividuality while studying under the great Rembrandt. He seems to have first established a reputation in painting mural decora tions with views of architecture in perspective. But of these works nothing remains. However, the pictures which are still extant show an artist of great power.
The earliest work is the half-length portrait of Abraham de Notte in the Rijks museum at Amsterdam. It is dated 1640 and is the work of a mature artist. A portrait of a man in the museum at Rotterdam was attributed to Rembrandt until the signature of Fabritius was discovered. The National Gallery, London, has a splendid half-length portrait of a soldier. In the same collection is the picture of "A musical instrument dealer with a view of Delft." The museum at Schwerin contains "The sentinel," dated 1654, and the Ferdinandeum at Innsbruck the picture of "Tobias and his wife." In the Mauritshuis at The Hague is the famous "Goldfinch," signed and dated 16J4. In distinction to Rembrandt, whose figures emerge modelled by the action of light from a dark background, the figures of Fabritius are silhouetted against a light background, a scheme which was adopted and developed by Fabritius's great pupil, Vermeer.
See Hofstede de Groot, Catalogue of Dutch Painters (1902) .