A Second Flemish Gem Comes to Light
1st August 2025-
Paul Bril (Flemish 1554-1626) Coastal landscape with a harbour, and fishermen and merchants on the shore
In line with the BBC’s popular new series Fake or Fortune?, investigating an artwork’s authenticity and provenance is an integral part of the expertise offered by every department specialist at Woolley and Wallis.
When a painting titled Coastal Landscape with a Harbour, Fishermen and Merchants on the Shore was brought in for valuation, having been miscatalogued by another auction house, picture specialists Victor Fauvelle and Ed Beer immediately recognised a quality that compelled further investigation. Ed Beer said:
“The coastal landscape had all the hallmarks of a work by Bril: the luminous skies, rhythmic composition and delicate atmospheric depth. The painting stood out straightaway as something special.”
Paul Bril (1554–1626) was a leading Flemish landscape artist, born in Antwerp but active in Rome, where he established a lasting reputation. Further research by Victor uncovered a copy of the same composition offered at auction in Paris in 2023 (Delon-Hoebanx, 12 October 2023, lot 19).
With mounting evidence that the work could be a lost masterpiece, Dr Luuk Pijl, the world’s leading expert on Paul Bril, was consulted. He confirmed that the painting was not only genuine, but also of significant historical importance, previously unrecorded in any existing catalogue or academic publication.
Describing Bril as “the most influential landscape painter of his generation,” Dr Pijl noted:
“The present coastal landscape is a fine and significant addition to a small group of oil-on-canvas harbour landscapes painted by Bril.”
As Ed Beer further explained:
“Paul Bril was one of the most important landscape painters working in Rome around 1600. Born in Antwerp, he brought Northern precision to Italianate views, and his richly atmospheric landscapes had a formative influence on later masters, including Jan Brueghel the Elder. This rediscovered painting sheds new light on a transitional period in Bril’s career, revealing his growing interest in classical narrative and the poetic potential of landscape.”
By happy coincidence, this marks the paintings department’s second major Flemish Old Master discovery in 2025. Earlier this year, an oil painting by Abel Grimmer (c.1570–1618/19), titled Landscape with Peasants near a Lakeside Castle, was awarded full attribution and sold in our March Old Masters sale for £19,530 (including fees).
The Coastal Landscape by Paul Bril, consigned from a private family collection, sold for £48,260 (including fees) in the Old Masters, British & European Paintings sale on 3rd and 4th September.
