Joseph van Bredael

Josef van Bredael was one of the most accomplished of the painters who continued the tradition of landscape painting established by Jan Brueghel the Elder (1568-1625) into the eighteenth century. Although no prototype for this particular composition by the elder Brueghel survives, the design is known in two signed versions by his son, Jan Brueghel the Younger (1601-1678), one last recorded with Galerie Katz in Dieren in 1937 and the other with Galerie Gans in The Hague in 1951.¹  In addition to the present example, several versions of this composition by Josef van Bredael are known. These include one of slightly smaller dimensions formerly with Galerie de Voldere in Paris,²  one of larger dimensions recorded with the Terry-Engell Gallery in London in 1968,³ and another of even larger dimensions sold at Sotheby's London on 6 December 2012 (lot 135) for $146,609.⁴  

We are grateful to Prof. Dr. Jan de Maere for endorsing the present attribution on the basis of digital photographs. 

1. For which see K. Ertz, Jan Brueghel the Younger (1601-78), Freren 1984, pp. 253-5, cat. nos. 74 and 75, reproduced.

2. Oil on copper, 15.3 by 22 cm, signed lower left JB.  See K. Ertz and C. Nitze-Ertz, Josef van Bredael, Lingen 2006, p. 155, cat. no. E37, reproduced p. 38, fig. 41. 

3. Oil on copper, 24.4 by 32.1 cm, signed JB and bears date 1612. See Ertz 2006, p. 155, cat. no. E38.  

4. Oil on copper, 30.3 by 38.7 cm, signed with initials lower center IB.