Born: February 27, 1622 - Middenbeemster, Dutch Republic
Died: October 12, 1654 - Delft, Dutch Republic
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Summary of Carel Fabritius
Though less well known than his Dutch Golden Age contemporaries due to his tragic and untimely death, Fabritius was a bone-fide free spirit working within the Baroque tradition. He left only a small number of portraits and genre paintings - just 13 confirmed artworks - but these reveal him to be an artist of no little historical significance. Indeed, he is considered Rembrandt's most gifted and important student and, having left the great Dutch Master's charge, he went on to become a key figure within the mid-17th century School of Delft; a group known predominantly for its views of the city and its daily life, coupled with quieter, more considered, interior compositions. At Delft, his work typically employed delicate shading with dark figures set against a light background. His interest in the laws (and limits) of perspective and pictorial spatial relations, meanwhile, saw him share an affinity with his fellow Delft artist, Johannes Vermeer.
Key Ideas
The eldest of three boys, Carel Pietersz was born to Pieter Carels and Berbertje van der Maes in Middenbeemster, a village in the Beemster polder, just north of Amsterdam, in 1622. His father was a sexton, painter and schoolteacher and Carel and his siblings, Barent and Johannes, would also go on to become painters. It seems highly likely that the three brothers would have received painting lessons from their father. However, it is known that Carel and Barent worked for a short time as carpenters and soon after adopted the surname "Fabritius" (carpenter in Latin). In early 1641 Carel joined the Dutch Reformed Church and later that same year he married Aeltge Velthuys whose brother was the local pastor Tobias Velthusius and with who she lived in the parsonage next to Carel's house.
Important Art by Carel Fabritius | |
  | The Raising of Lazarus (1642)Artwork description & Analysis: Though he would soon produce artworks very much in his own style, Rembrandt's influence is pronounced in the Raising of Lazarus, one of Fabritius's earliest known canvases. Indeed, Fabritius renders this well-known scene from the Bible, in which Lazarus rises from the dead, in his mentor's distinctive "dark and light" manner. Rembrandt was a master of shading which he used to create intricated reflections of light but Fabritius took his master's technique a step further giving the scene a realistic shadowy depth of field. Oil on canvas - Muzeum Narodowe w Warszawie |
 | Mercury and Argus (1646)Artwork description & Analysis: This painting, which at first appears to be a pastoral genre scene, with two relaxing male figures and a group of cows and sheep, in fact presents a mythical story. In the story, the God Jupiter falls in love with a woman named Io, and he turns her into a cow to hide her from his jealous wife, Juno. When Juno learns of this deceit, she asks the shepherd Argus to guard the cow from Jupiter. Jupiter finds out, and sends Mercury to steal back the cow. Following Juno's orders, Argus gives Mercury wine until he falls asleep (the moment depicted by Fabritius), and proceeds to cut off his head with a sword (seen here laying to the left of Argus). Oil on canvas - Los Angeles County Museum of Art |
 | Portrait of Abraham de Potter (1649)Artwork description & Analysis: Fabritius was active as a portraitist from the late 1640s until his death. Portrait of Abraham de Potter was amongst his first. On first glance, his portrait of the silk merchant (Abraham de Potter) appears rather conventional. The sitter is dressed in sober black attire, and a stiff pleated ruff that was the height of fashion in mid-seventeenth century Holland. However, closer scrutiny of the painting reveals the artist's self-conscious departure from the stylistic preferences of his mentor. Oil on canvas - Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam |
More Carel Fabritius Artwork and Analysis:
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Content compiled and written by Alexandra Duncan
Edited and published by The Art Story Contributors
" Artist Overview and Analysis". [Internet]. . TheArtStory.org
Content compiled and written by Alexandra Duncan
Edited and published by The Art Story Contributors
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First published on 03 Dec 2019. Updated and modified regularly. 
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