The Goldfinch in Mauritshuis

PostNL released 9 stamps on July 1, 2014 to commemorate the reopening of Mauritshuis, each stamp depicting masterpieces from the art museum located in The Hague. One of them features the oil painting entitled “The Goldfinch” (dating 1654) by Carel Fabritius, the Delft-based pupil of Rembrandt and perhaps a teacher of Vermeer. Fabritius died tragically in 1654 in the “Delft Thunderclap”, when the Delft armory, and its large store of gunpowder, exploded, destroying a quarter of the town. The painting, done the year he died, is an example of trompe-l’œil – an art technique that uses realistic imagery to create the optical illusion that the depicted objects exist in three dimensions.

The Goldfinch also possesses literary gravitas (and fame) by way of Donna Tart’s Pulitzer Prize for Fiction-winning “The Goldfinch”. The book was quite possibly the most gripping/absorbing story I had read in a long while.

Since this is a short post, here is a picture of an European Goldfinch from Wikimedia and a link to hear one singing: http://ibc.lynxeds.com/sound/european-goldfinch-carduelis-carduelis/winter-song-male (Direct audio location)

References:

http://collectclub.postnl.nl/pages/detail/s1/10220000002117-2-21010000000080.aspx

http://www.essentialvermeer.com/dutch-painters/masters/cfabritiusbase.html