Bartholomeus Breenbergh Deventer 1598 - 1657 Amsterdam

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Description

Bartholomeus Breenbergh
the castle of bracciano, with a figure walking towards the entrance
signed with monogram and dated, lower left: B B 1629 (the 2 altered in ink to a 5);
numbered, upper right: 3;
inscribed, verso: Bracciano
bears numbering in brown ink, verso: 35, and old attribution in black chalk: B Breenberg fec
pen and brown ink and wash, with touches of grey wash, over black chalk

Provenance

Boguslaw Jolles (L.381)

Catalogue Note

This is one of a number of sketches of Italian scenes by Breenbergh which seem to originate from the same sketchbook: they share not only the same dimensions, but also bear similar numberings in the top corner, the highest number being 35. What appears to have been the following sheet in the sketchbook, numbered 4 and now in Frankfurt, also depicts a location near Bracciano, as do two others, one, the numbering of which is unclear, in Berlin and the other, numbered 28, formerly in the Van Leeuwen Collection (see Marcel Roethlisberger, Bartholomäus Breenbergh, Handzeichnungen, Berlin 1969, cat. nos. 64-5). Roethlisberger dates all these sketches to the last years of the artist's stay in Rome, between 1626 and 1629. Breenbergh may have visited Bracciano at the behest of Duke Paolo Giordano II Orsini, whose summer residence was there, and for whom the artist is known to have worked.