Paul Bril

Duke of Sutherland, Dunrobin Castle, by 1921;
By whom sold, London, Christie's, 29 November 1957, lot 31, to Agnew;
With Thos. Agnew & Sons, London;
Denys Sutton, London;
Thence by descent to the present owner.

London, Thos. Agnew and Sons, Ltd., 1958;
Cardiff, National Museum of Wales, Ideal & Classical Landscape, 6 February - 3 April 1960, cat. no. 18;
Bologna, L'Ideale classico del Seicento in Italia e la pittura di paesaggio, 8 September - 11 November 1962, cat. no. 124.

Duke of Sutherland, Dunrobin Castle catalogue, 1921, no. 253;
Art News, April 1958, Vol. 57, No. 2, p. 4, reproduced;
F. Cappelletti, Paul Bril, e la pittura di paesaggio a Roma 1580-1630, Rome 2005, p. 304, cat. no. 166, reproduced (where described as a late work).

The following condition report has been provided by Simon Parkes of Simon Parkes Art Conservation, Inc. 502 East 74th St. New York, NY 212-734-3920, simonparkes@msn.com, an independent restorer who is not an employee of Sotheby's. This painting has a European glue lining; this lining and the restoration are not recent. The lining is still effective. The painting will certainly respond to cleaning. Under ultraviolet light, it is hard to identify restorations because of the old varnish. Although I cannot identify any retouches with the naked eye in the sky, if and when the picture is cleaned, there may be a few spots here and there that would be uncovered. It is more likely that the darkest colors in the foreground have become weaker and may have been retouched slightly. However, the profile of the darker colors against the sky is still quite strong. The details in the figures are also very healthy. Therefore, I do not anticipate any unfortunate revelations during cleaning, and find the condition to be very good.
"This lot is offered for sale subject to Sotheby's Conditions of Business, which are available on request and printed in Sotheby's sale catalogues. The independent reports contained in this document are provided for prospective bidders' information only and without warranty by Sotheby's or the Seller."

Although Paul Bril was born in Antwerp, he spent the majority of his life in Rome, where he is recorded as active by 1582. Bril secured a wide variety of commissions throughout his career. Most importantly perhaps, a fresco cycle in the church of Santa Cecilia in Trastevere where he depicted hermit saints praying in wooded landscapes. Furthermore, he received other prestigious commissions from Pope Clement VIII and Cardinal Scipione Borghese, as well as from patrons outside Rome, including Cardinal Federico Borromeo in Milan, Cardinal Carlo de'Medici in Florence, and Duke Ferdinando Gonzaga in Mantua. However, Bril's prestige was not confined to Italy alone. His drawings were sent back to Antwerp where they were engraved by various artists and subsequently influenced painters such as Cornelis Poelenburgh, Bartholomeus Breenbergh and Claude Lorrain. Claude, in fact, based one of his own fresco Landscapes on the present composition (Palazzo Crescenzi a Piazza della Rotonda in Rome; see M. Roethlisberger, L'opera completa di Claude Lorrain, Milan 1975, p. 85, fig. 3).  

A copy of the present work, on panel, was sold London, Sotheby's, 11 December 1996, lot 288.  

We are grateful to Dr. Luuk Pijl for supporting the attribution to Bril, based on photographs. Dr. Pijl, dates the work to between 1617-1620, and will include it in his forthcoming catalogue raisonné of Paul Bril's paintings.