Fabritius also shows excellent control of a heavily loaded brush, as in The Goldfinch (1654), in which can be seen Fabritius' luminous style, showing off his use of cool color harmonies, delicate lighting effects, and a light background.

All these qualities appear in the work of Delft's most famous painters, Vermeer and de Hooch; it is likely that Fabritius is a strong influence on them.

Of all Rembrandt's pupils, Fabritius, the most promising of his students, is the only one to have developed his own artistic style.

A typical Rembrandt portrait would have a plain dark background with the subject defined by spotlighting.

In contrast, Fabritius' portraits feature delicately lit subjects against light-colored, textured backgrounds.

Moving away from the Renaissance focus on iconography, Fabritius has become interested in the technical aspects of painting.

Fabritius dies at thirty-two on October 12, 1654, in an explosion at the Delft gunpowder magazine, which kills over one hundred people and destroys a quarter of the city, along with his studio and many of his paintings.

Less than a dozen paintings survive.