Carel Pietersz. Fabritius. (27 February 1622 – 12 October 1654) was a Dutch painter and a pupil of Rembrandt. He worked in Rembrandt’s studio in Amsterdam. Fabritius, who was a member of the Delft School, developed his own artistic style and experimented with perspective and lighting. Among his works are A View of Delft (1652), The Goldfinch (1654), and The Sentry (1654).
Fabritius was the son of Pieter Carelsz, a painter and schoolteacher and he had two younger brothers Barent and Johannes, who also became painters. Initially he worked as a carpenter. In the early 1640s he and Barent studied at Rembrandt's studio in Amsterdam. In the early 1650s Fabritius moved to Delft, and joined the Delft painters' guild.
Fabritius died young, caught in the explosion of the Delft gunpowder magazine on October 12, 1654. The explosion destroyed a quarter of the city, along with Fabritius’ studio and many of his paintings. Only about a dozen paintings have survived. Fabritius’ student Mattias Spoors and the church deacon Simon Decker died with him, as they were working on a painting together at the time.
In a poem written by Arnold Bon to his memory, he is called Karel Faber.