PAUL BRIL (1554-1626) [?]

AN EXPANSIVE VIEW NEAR THE PALATINE, ROME
Inscribed l.l. brueghel, bears inscription l.r. B Breenbergh
Pen & ink with brown & blue wash
17.5 x 25.5 cm
 
PROVENANCE:
Private collection, France (until 2023)
 
 
 
 
We are grateful to Prof. Louisa Wood Ruby for her generous assistance in cataloguing this drawing, following a first-hand examination of the work. Prof. Ruby has said that the position to take on this drawing is a very nuanced one: rather than referring to the work as 'Attributed to Paul Bril', a more apt description would be (as we have adopted) Paul Bril (?), as the majority of the sheet does indeed bear the hallmarks of Bril and should be given to him stylistically. 
 
The perspective of this view corresponds closely to a sheet by Harmen ter Borch in the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam (see fig. I above), suggesting its status as either a prototype or relation to an original. Certainly, the presence of the various washes, together with the curious and rather cautious lines above the left corner of the ruins on the far left of the middle-ground, both point to our drawing having been passed from one artist to another, with interpolations made along the way. 
 
 
Further intriguing aspects of our sheet include the fold to the upper third, with the elements above this in an altogether later manner and almost certainly of a later date (particularly the grey wash); and the two late (and possibly cynically-minded!) inscriptions attributing the drawing variously to one of the Brueghel dynasty and to Bartholomeus Breenbergh. 
 
Bril painted variations on this perspective on numerous occasions, with even more paintings executed by studio hands and later followers, and even the present sheet shows a view drawn with some artistic license, rather than an exacting topographical representation. That being said, the details that abound throughout the composition demonstrate Bril's aptitude at inserting actual sights, edifices and structures at his own discretion to create a cohesive view that immediately evokes the romance of Rome and its classical history.