Carel Fabritius

Carel Fabritius first worked as a carpenter, which may explain his Latin surname, and studied with Rembrandt in Amsterdam in the early 1640s. Settling in Delft, he moved away from his master's dark manner, setting figures against pale backgrounds and experimenting with perspective and daylight. He died at 32 in the Delft gunpowder explosion of 1654, which also destroyed most of his work. Only about a dozen paintings survive, among them The Goldfinch.