SECTION V CAREL FABRITIUS THE date of Carel Fabritius's birth cannot be precisely determined, in spite of the very careful researches made in archives during the past decade. It has still to be deduced from the statement made by Bleijswijck, in his description of Delft in 1667, that the master was about thirty when he was killed in the explosion at Delft, in October 12, 1654. Thus Fabritius was born about 1624-25. The document stating that on April 24, 1643, Fabritius, then living in Amsterdam, was a widower with a little daughter, need not conflict with Bleijswijck's date, since it is by no means unlikely that the painter was married at eighteen. The remark of Hoogstraten, that he worked with Fabritius in Rembrandt's studio from January 1641 onwards, can also be reconciled with the suggested date of birth. There would be no cogent reason for questioning that date if the signed portrait of Abraham de Notte, in the Rijksmuseum at Amsterdam which cannot be the work of a lad of fifteen was not dated 1640. If this date is genuine, Fabritius must have been born about ten years earlier than Bleijswijck would lead one to suppose ; and Hoogstraten, writing in 1678, must have made a slip in speaking of Fabritius as a pupil in Rembrandt's studio, whereas he frequented it only as a fellow-artist out of attachment to his old master. But it is also possible that the date on the Amsterdam portrait has been altered in retouching, and that the last figure should be a "6 " or a "9 " ; the suggestion is not at all improbable, since the background of the portrait has been largely repainted by a later hand. In this case the accepted date of Fabritius's birth, about 1624-25, would hold good. The question can only be solved by a careful examina- tion of the figures on the portrait. Nothing is known as to the master's birthplace. He was not a native of Delft. Bleijswijck expressly describes him as a stranger among the Delft artists. When he entered the Delft painters' guild, October 29, 1652, he paid the fee of twelve florins usually exacted from strangers who had settled in the town. The few documentary references to Fabritius are easily summarised. The record of the inventory taken on April 24, 1643, * n t ^ ie mterest f Fabritius's little daughter, is also the last reference to him as a resident of Amsterdam. On August 20, 1650, he married Agatha van Pruijssen, widow of Volckerus Vosch, in Delft. On February 7, 1653, he was a
