Carel Fabritius, 'A View of Delft', 1652

A View of Delft

Carel Fabritius

Not on display

About the work

Overview

This very small and very unusual painting shows the view of the Nieuwe Kerk in Delft as though through a wide-angle lens. The effect is emphasised by two musical instruments, set out on a table by the man – probably a maker of, or dealer in, such instruments.

The violin (or possibly a viola da gamba) has been dramatically foreshortened – painted as though it’s receding into the picture space – giving the impression that it is very close to the viewer. This effect, combined with the church in the middle ground and the lines of sight disappearing off into the distance on either side, has led many art historians to conclude that Fabritius designed the image to create a specific optical illusion.

It was probably made to be fitted into a viewing box and looked at through a lens or peephole. Viewers would be deceived into believing that they were looking at a three-dimensional scene.

In-depth

This is a very small and very unusual painting, showing a view of the Nieuwe Kerk in Delft as though through a wide-angle lens. We look roughly north-west over a canal from the corner of two streets, the Oude Langendijk and Oosteinde. The grey shape just to the left of the church is the town hall. Both these buildings look much the same today, but the canal has been filled in and the houses on the right have been knocked down.

Views of particular streets and buildings were popular in seventeenth-century Holland, and especially in Delft, where Fabritius worked. The exaggerated perspectives the artist created make this one unusual. The church seems to loom towards us and the bend in the cobbled street seems to reflect the curve of a glass lens.

The effect is most strongly emphasised in the two musical instruments, set out on the table by a man who sits watchfully in the shade. He is probably a maker of, or dealer in, such instruments, and this is his stall. Fabritius may have had an aesthetic appreciation of the shape and form of the instruments, but he also wanted to use them to create a visual illusion. He uses a dramatically foreshortened view along the strings and fingerboard of a violin (or possibly a viola da gamba) so that the instrument appears extremely close to us. It follows the line of the street behind, which leads away from the centre of the picture, drawing our eye to the bulbous back of a lute leaning up against the wall. There we also see Fabritius’s signature carved into the wall as though it were a piece of graffiti.

Together, the impression of the instruments‘ closeness, the church as centrepiece in the middle ground and the lines of sight disappearing off into the distance on either side have led many art historians to conclude that Fabritius designed the image to create a specific optical illusion. It was probably made to be fitted into a viewing box and looked at through a lens or peephole. This would have created an impression of depth, so viewers were deceived into believing they were looking at a three-dimensional scene. This was known as a trompe l’oeil effect (or trick of the eye) and several artists of the time specialised in such illusions. There’s an example in our collection of what is known as a ’perspective box' of this type: A Peepshow with Views of the Interior of a Dutch House by Samuel van Hoogstraten. It has two sight holes which allow a view of an interior and was probably made about five or six years after the Fabritius painting.

What hasn’t been definitively proven is exactly how Fabritius’s view was intended to be mounted and looked at. It may be that it was made to be pasted onto a curved surface inside the box, or perhaps viewed through a lens which created a particular optical distortion.

Key facts

Details

Full title: A View of Delft, with a Musical Instrument Seller's Stall
Artist: Carel Fabritius
Artist dates: 1622 - 1654
Date made: 1652
Medium and support: oil on canvas
Dimensions: 15.5 × 31.7 cm
Inscription summary: Signed; Dated
Acquisition credit: Presented by the Art Fund, 1922
Inventory number: NG3714
Location: Not on display
Collection: Main Collection
Frame: 19th-century English Frame

Provenance

Bought in Naples in 1836. Lent by Sir William Eden, Bart., to the National Loan Exhibition, Grafton Galleries, 1909–10. Purchased from his son, Sir Thomas Eden, Bart., by the NACF and presented to the National Gallery, 1922.

Additional information

Text extracted from the ‘Provenance’ section of the catalogue entry in Neil MacLaren, revised and expanded by Christopher Brown, ‘National Gallery Catalogues: The Dutch School: 1600–1900’, London 1991; for further information, see the full catalogue entry.

Exhibition history

2008

Pride of Place: Dutch Cityscapes of the Golden Age

National Gallery of Art (Washington DC)

1 February 2009 - 3 May 2009
2013

Vermeer and Music: The Art of Love and Leisure

The National Gallery (London)

26 June 2013 - 8 September 2013

Bibliography

1907

C. Hofstede de Groot, Catalogue Raisonné of the Works of the Most Eminent Dutch Painters of the Seventeenth Century, 10 vols, London 1907
1923

C.J. Holmes, 'Honthorst, Fabritius and de Witte', The Burlington Magazine, XLII/239, 1923, pp. 82-8
1932

R. Fritz, Das Stadt: Und Strassenbild in der holländischen Malerei des 17. Jahrhunderts, Stuttgart 1932
1932

W.R. Valentiner, 'Carel and Barent Fabritius', Art Bulletin, XIV/3, 1932, pp. 197-240
1937

E.P. Richardson, 'Samuel van Hoogstraten and Carel Fabritius', Art in America, CCV, 1937, pp. 141-52
1942

W. Martin, De Hollandsche schilderkunst in de zeventiende eeuw: Rembrandt en zijn yijd, Amsterdam 1942
1952

K.G. Hultén, 'A Peep Show by Carel Fabritius', Art Quarterly, XV/4, 1952, pp. 278-90
1955

R. Hinks, 'Peepshow and Roving Eye', Architectural Review, CXVIII, 1955, pp. 161-4
1960

Maclaren, Neil, National Gallery Catalogues: The Dutch School, 2 vols, London 1960
1960

E. Plietzsch, Holländische und flämische Maler des XVII. Jahrh, Leipzig 1960
1966

H. Roosen-Runge, 'Perspectiven und Bildwirklichkeit in holländischen Gemälden des 17.Jahrhunderts', Kunstchronik, XIX, 1966, pp. 304-5
1966

H. Schwarz, 'Vermeer and the Camera Obscura', Pantheon, XXIV, 1966
1973

A.K. Wheelock, 'Carel Fabritius: Perspective and Optics in Delft', Nederlands Kunsthistorisch Jaarboek, XXIV, 1973, pp. 63-83
1975

F. Leeman, Anamorphosen. Ein Spiel mit der Wahrnehmung, Cologne 1975
1976

W. Liedtke, 'The "View in Delft" by Carel Fabritius', The Burlington Magazine, CXVIII/875, 1976, pp. 61-73
1977

A.K. Wheelock, Perspective, Optics and Delft Artists Around 1650, New York 1977
1977

R.J. Wattenmaker, 'Introduction', in The Dutch Cityscape in the 17th Century and its Sources, Amsterdam 1977
1978

A. Blankert, Johann Vermeer van Delft 1632-1675, English edn, Oxford 1978
1979

C. Brown, 'The Reputation of Carel Fabritius', Apollo, CX/214, 1979, pp. 476-81
1979

W. Liedtke, 'Review: Arthur K. Wheelock, Jr., Perspective, Optics, and Delft Artists Around 1650, 1977', Art Bulletin, LXI/3, 1979, pp. 490-6
1979

K. Veltman, 'Review: Arthur K. Wheelock, Jr., Perspective, Optics and Delft Artists Around 1650, New York and London, 1977', Zeitschrift für Kunstgeschichte, XLII, 1979, pp. 81-2
1982

W. Liedtke, Architectural Painting in Delft, Doornspijk 1982
1983

J. Bruyn, 'Naschrift', Oud Holland, XCVII/4, 1983, pp. 291-2
1986

G. Aillaud, A. Blankert and J.M. Montias, Vermeer, Paris 1986
1987

T. Laurentius, 'Perspectief-vertekeningen bij landschaptekenaars', De Kroniek van het Rembrandthuis, XXXIX/1, 1987, pp. 2-20
1988

J. Elkins, '"Das Nüsslein beisset auf, ihr Künstler!": Curvilinear Perspective in Seventeenth-Century Dutch Art', Oud Holland, CII, 1988, pp. 268-70
1990

M. Kemp, The Science of Art: Optical Themes in Western Art from Brunelleschi to Seurat, London 1990
1991

Maclaren, Neil, revised by Christopher Brown, National Gallery Catalogues: The Dutch School, 1600-1900, 2nd edn (revised and expanded), 2 vols, London 1991
1991

J. Giltaij and G. Jansen, Perspectives: Saenredam and the architectural painters of the seventeenth century, (exh. cat. Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, 15 September -24 November 1991), Rotterdam 1991
1994

L. Keith, 'Carel Fabritius' "A View in Delft": Some Observations on its Treatment and Display', National Gallery Technical Bulletin, XV, 1994, pp. 54-63
1996

M. Westermann, A Worldly Art: The Dutch Republic, 1585-1718, New York 1996
1996

W. Sumowski, 'Ein Gemälde bon Carel Fabritius', Pantheon, LIV, 1996, pp. 77-84
1996

M.C.C. Kersten and M.C. Plomp, Delft masters, Vermeer's Contemporaries: Illusionism through the Conquest of Light and Space, (exh. cat. Museum Het Prinsenhof, 1 March - 2 June 1996), Delft 1996
2001

C. Baker and T. Henry, The National Gallery: Complete Illustrated Catalogue, London 2001
2001

R. Baarsen et al., Vermeer and the Delft School, New Haven 2001
2002

S. Michalski, 'Rembrandt and the Church Interiors of the Delft School', Artibus et historiae, XXIII/46, 2002, pp. 183-93
2004

N. Krikhaar, Carel Fabritius, Deventer 2004
2004

F. Duparc et al., Carel Fabritius, 1622-1654 (exh. cat. Mauritshuis, 24 September 2004 - 9 January 2005; Staatliches Museum Schwerin, 28 January - 16 May 2005), Zwolle 2004
2006

P. Schatborn, 'Drawings Attributed to Carel Fabritius', Oud Holland, CXIX, 2006, pp. 130-8
2007

M.E. Wieseman and E. Greer, Dutch Painting: The National Gallery, London 2007
2008

A. van Suchtelen and A.K. Wheelock, Dutch Cityscapes of the Golden Age (exh. cat. Mauritshuis, 11 October 2008 - 11 January 2009; National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1 February - 3 May 2009), The Hague 2008
2008

P. Sutton, Vermeer and the Delft Style (exh. cat. Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum, 2 August - 14 December 2008), Tokyo 2008
2009

B. Binstock, 'Four Unknown Masterpieces by Carel Fabritius', Jahrbuch der Berliner Museen, LI, 2009, pp. 161-8

About this record

If you know more about this painting or have spotted an error, please contact us. Please note that exhibition histories are listed from 2009 onwards. Bibliographies may not be complete; more comprehensive information is available in the National Gallery Library.

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Not on display