(Antwerp 1554–1626 Rome)
A mountainous river landscape with a hermit,
oil on canvas, 77 x 106 cm, framed

Provenance:
Private collection, United Kingdom

We are grateful to Francesca Cappelletti for confirming the attribution of the present painting. She dates it around 1595-98.

Paul Bril carried out his training in Antwerp and then moved to Italy at some point before 1582. His elder brother Matthijs (circa 1550–1583) was well established in Rome, where he was commissioned by Pope Gregory XIII to paint fresco decorations in the Vatican. When Bril moved to Rome, he helped his brother in this work. However, in 1583, Matthijs died prematurely, which meant that Bril took the lead on the papal commissions, both in the Vatican and in a variety of churches and villas in and around Rome. From about 1590 onwards, Bril also began to carry out work for private patrons, producing cabinet-sized landscape paintings on copper or panel. These early works usually depict a high viewpoint, steep rocky outcrops, miniaturist detail, and a stylised colour scheme and in this way can undoubtedly be connected to the Antwerp landscape tradition.

The present work is characteristic of Bril’s style in this period. The unidentified subject may be either one of the saints associated with the wilderness or perhaps a philosopher from antiquity, posed dynamically and set harmoniously before the animated vitality of the landscape.