Paul Bril (Flemish 1554-1626)

Paul Bril (Flemish 1554-1626)
Coastal landscape with a harbour, and fishermen and merchants on the shore
Oil on canvas
69.9 x 101.2cm; 27½ x 39¾in

Provenance:
The Charrington Family Collection, Winchfield House, Hampshire

Literature:
To be published in Luuk Pijl's forthcoming catalogue raisonné of Bril's work

The present work is an exciting addition to the ouevre of Paul Bril. Until its recent discovery, the painting was completely unknown to scholars. Its composition was known only through a copy, which was offered for auction in Paris (Delon-Hoebanx, 12 October 2023, lot 19). The Paris work was offered with a pendant, which itself reproduced Bril's Italianate Landscape with a hawking party approaching a villa, which sold at Sotheby's, London, 10 July 2003, lot 10. It seems likely that our work and the Sotheby's painting were hanging as pendants when the copyist made their versions. However, the two Bril paintings, although similar in size, do not work particularly well as a pair, so were probably not conceived as pendants even if they were later displayed as such.

Bril was the most influential landscape painter of his generation. Luuk Pijl has described this work as 'a fine and significant addition' to a small group of landscapes with harbours which Bril painted on canvas. None of these works are dated, but in the context of Bril's overall stylistic development, a date of 1610-1615 is plausible.

We are grateful to Drs Luuk Pijl for confirming the attribution of the present work to Paul Bril on the basis of photographs.