Carel Fabritius

A student of Rembrandt, Fabritius, like his contemporary, Vermeer, was fascinated by light, (one could ask whether any painter isn't). He also was known for his interest in optical illusion.

Via Donna Tartt’s excellent novel The Goldfinch, which has Fabritius’s painting of the same name, ( painted in1654), on its cover, many people will have seen at least one example of the painter’s work. Although not every reader necessarily checks the small print to find out where the picture on their copy of the book came from or who it is by, there are quite a few who do, judging by the crowds of people who swarm around the painting in the Hague’s Mauritshuis museum.

In the National Gallery in London there are two more pictures by the artist. One is a view of Delft, painted in 1652. It displays exaggerated perspective, suggesting it was made for a peep box (traces of copper on the back of the picture are probably evidence it was mounted on a concave copper plate, allowing it to be bent to correct its perspective):

and a supposed self-portrait called Young Man in a Fur Cap, painted in 1654, shortly before his death:

Fabritius’s death was caused by a disaster in Delft, the town where he was living, on 12th October, 1654. The municipal gunpowder store exploded, destroying almost one-third of the town.

The National Gallery also has on display a painting of the aftermath of that accident by Egbert van der Poel, painted in the year it happened: