Oil on copper, 13cm by 16.5cm.
There is an entry in the 1763 Burghley Inventory recording: ‘The Japan Closet….a Landscape by Paul Brill,’ which may refer to this painting.
Paul Bril was a Flemish landscape painter and printmaker.
He painted mainly in Rome, where his work was highly regarded, and his Italianate landscapes strongly influenced the landscapes of Italian and Northern European artists.
In 1621 Bril became the first non Italian director of the prestigious Accademia di San Luca, the artists’ academy, in Rome, a reflection of the esteem in which he was held by his fellow artists.
