He spent most of his career in Italy where he became internationally famous. After completing his training in Antwerp, Paul Bril left for Rome in his early twenties, where his typically Flemish specialism, the landscape, was in great demand. There he received commissions for frescoes from popes and cardinals in addition to painting smaller landscapes on copper, panel or canvas.
Rubens met Bril in Rome and admired his art. He even reworked one of his landscapes. The new, signed acquisition dates from c. 1616-1619. Bril died in 1626 in Rome. Two years later, this work was depcited in The Art Gallery of Cornelis van der Geest. This metapainting is one of the showpieces of the Rubens House’s collection, offering contemporary visitors a unique insight into the 17th-century Antwerp art world.
For the first time in nearly 400 years, these two paintings are reunited in the museum again. Bril’s work is also an important addition to the Rubens’s House small collection of landscapes.
Specifications
- Paul Bril (1554–1626)
- Landscape with Nymphs and Satyrs
- Oil on canvas
- Purchased with the generous support of the Friends of the Rubens House Fund
Paul Bril (1554-1626), Landscape with Nymphs and Satyrs, ca. 1616/1619, oil on canvas, 65 x 89 cm – © LUCID
