(Antwerp 1554–1626 Rome)
A rocky landscape with a hunting party near roman ruins,
oil on canvas, 70.5 x 98.4 cm, framed

Provenance:
The Duke of Sutherland, Dunrobin Castle, by 1921;
by whom sold, Christie’s, London, 29 November 1957, lot 31;
where bought by Thomas Agnew & Sons, London;
Collection of Denys Sutton (1917–1991), London

Exhibited:
Cardiff, National Museum of Wales, Ideal & Classical Landscape, 6th February – 3rd April 1960, cat. no. 18;
Bologna, L’Ideale classic del Seicento in Italia e la pittura di paesaggio, 8th September – 11th November 1962, cat. no. 124;

Literature:
The Duke of Sutherland, Dunrobin Castle, catalogue, 1921, no. 253;
Art News, April 1958, vol. 57, no. 2, p. 4, illustrated;
F. Cappelletti, Paul Bril et la pittura di paesaggio a Roma 1580–1630, Rome, 2005, p. 304, no. 166, illustrated

We are grateful to Luuk Pijl for confirming the attribution on the basis of photographs. Pijl dates the work to circa 1617–20 and will include the present painting in his forthcoming catalogue raisonné on the artist.

Paul Bril carried out his training in Antwerp and then moved to Italy at some point before 1582. His elder brother Matthijs (circa 1550–1583) was well established in Rome, where he was commissioned by Pope Gregory XIII to paint fresco decorations in the Vatican. When Bril moved to Rome, he helped his brother in this work. However, in 1583, Matthijs died prematurely, which meant that Bril took the lead on the papal commissions, both in the Vatican and in a variety of churches and villas in and around Rome. From about 1590 onwards, Bril also began to carry out work for private patrons, producing cabinet-sized landscape paintings on copper or panel. These early works usually depict a high viewpoint, steep rocky outcrops, miniaturist detail, and a stylised colour scheme and in this way can undoubtedly be connected to the Antwerp landscape tradition.

The present work bears all the characteristics of Bril’s work after 1600. This was the period when the artist began to be influenced by the Bolognese painter Annibale Carracci (1560–1609) and his Italian followers. We can see this influence in the development of his work in fresco, where his horizons became lower, the transitions from foreground to background smoother, and the colours that he used more naturalistic. With these developments, his frescos gradually moved towards a simple and more classically organised landscape style, and away from the typically Mannerist approach of his earlier works. During the first decade of the 17th century, we can see a similar development in his easel paintings, which might have been partly influenced by the German painter Adam Elsheimer (1578–1610). Elsheimer was a close friend and neighbour of Bril in Rome, known for his small and innovative landscape paintings.

Very few works on this scale are signed and dated by Bril, however, a comparison with the small selection of known dated examples suggests that the present painting can be dated to between 1617 and 1620. It can be compared with the Landscape with the Road to Emmaus, a larger painting (95 x 142 cm) on canvas, signed and dated 1617 and located in the Louvre, Paris. It can also be compared with the Landscape with Hare Coursing and a Ploughman, a painting on canvas measuring 66 x 88.5 cm, signed and dated 1620, and preserved in the Ponce Museum of Art, Puerto Rico.