This small painting depicts a European goldfinch, painted to scale at about four inches long, perched on its feedbox, to which it is attached by a fine gold chain looped on the brass ring that holds the box in place. The bird, shown in profile, turns toward the viewer with an alert, evocative expression.
Known for his innovative painting of the effects of light, here Fabritius used light and shadow conveyed in subtle tones to create a three-dimensional effect. He also used trompe d-oeil to make the painting appear real as it was hung in the kitchen, slightly above eye level, where the Dutch often kept goldfinches as pets. As Marco della Cava wrote of the work it is "a stark and faintly modernist rendition," with its fresh and simple immediacy, but the Calvinist audience of the era would have also have seen the goldfinch as a symbol of the resurrection, as its red spots and its feeding upon thistles were associated with Christ's passion.
Fabritius was only thirty-two when he was killed and most of his works were destroyed in a 1654 gunpowder explosion in Delft that destroyed a fourth of the city. Nevertheless, he was among the most admired of Rembrandt's students and would go on to influence Vermeer.
This enigmatic painting is at the center of Donna Tartt's novel The Goldfinch (2013), which is being made into a feature film of the same title.
The Goldfinch (Dutch: Het puttertje) is a 1654 animal painting by Carel Fabritius of a chained goldfinch. It is an oil painting on panel of 33.5 by 22.8 cm (13.2 by 9.0 in). The work belongs to the collection of the Mauritshuis in The Hague, Netherlands.
The painting is a trompe-l'œil of a European goldfinch (Carduelis carduelis) on top of its feeder that is attached to the wall. The feeder consists of two half rings and a blue container. The bird is sitting on the top ring, to which it is chained by its foot. The painting is signed "C fabritivs 1654" at the bottom.
In the 17th century, goldfinches were popular pets because they could be trained to draw water from a bowl with a miniature bucket. The Dutch title of the painting pertains to the bird's nickname puttertje, which refers to this custom and translates literally as 'little weller'.
The work was painted without major corrections, with only minor ones to the contours of the bird. Most of the painting is set up with large brush strokes, but details such as the chain are painted with more precision. Fabritius showed off his skill by painting the bird's head foreshortened.
It is one of three paintings that Fabritius painted in the year that he died. It is painted in a style distinct from Fabritius' master Rembrandt. In style, the work is closer to Fabritius' supposed pupil Johannes Vermeer, who further improved the skill of painting shadows. Art historians have found no hard evidence to support this master-pupil relationship.
As a trompe-l'œil, it is a unique work in Dutch Golden Age painting. It has been compared with Still-Life with Partridge and Gauntlets (1540) that Jacopo de' Barbari painted more than 100 years earlier.
The Goldfinch was owned by Chevalier Joseph-Guillaume-Jean Camberlyn in Brussels, when it was given to Etienne-Joseph-Théophile Thoré in 1865. It was sold again at Hôtel Drouot in Paris on 5 December 1892. The painting was later purchased by Abraham Bredius for the Mauritshuis at the sale of the E. Martinet collection also at Hôtel Drouot on 27 February 1896. The painting is in the permanent collection of the Mauritshuis in The Hague.
The painting plays a central role in the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt.
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