Moonlight Landscape
Artist/Maker
Material / Technique
Dimensionsh x w: Mått 23 x 31 cm h x w x d: Ram 26 x 34 x 3 cm
Inventory numberNM 377
Other titlesTitle (sv): Landskap i månsken Title (en): Moonlight Landscape
DescriptionCatalogue raisonné: Description in Flemish paintings C. 1600-C. 1800 III, Nationalmuseum, Stockholm, 2010, cat.no. 36: Technical notes: The painting has undergone a complete transfer from its original support, which consisted of a single piece of fairly coarse, dense, plain-weave linen. The weave structure of the original canvas support is now visible only in an X-radiograph, as an imprint in the radioabsorbent layer of ground. The preparatory layers consist of a lower thick, white chalk ground, followed by a light reddish brown imprimatura that extends to the edges. Paint is applied thinly in one or two, mostly opaque, layers, with slight impasto in the yellow highlights used to pick out the twisting tree trunks at centre and the mound on which they grow, their foliage and exposed roots, as well as the fortress and rock in the background, the clouds and moonbeams, etc. A thick layer of extensively discoloured old surface coating is present. The paint surface is encrusted with dirt. Localized extensive abrasion in the left half of the painting. Retouching covers major losses of ground and paint layers along and near the edges and scattered smaller losses in the landscape, especially in the foliage of the central trees, the sky and clouds at upper right. The painting underwent conservation treatment in 1845. Bibliography: NM Cat. 1867, p. 26 (as possibly Paul Bril); Sander III, p. 99; NM Cat. 1883, p. 32 (as copy after Paul Bril); NM Cat. 1958, p. 28 (as circle of Paul Bril); NM Cat. 1990, p. 52 (as circle of Paul Bril); Berger 1993, p. 217 (as circle of Paul Bril) This painting is presumably a copy, probably dating from the 17th century, after a lost original – a drawing or a print – by Matthjis Bril II or his younger brother, Paul. The painting assembles several of the Bril brothers’ favourite motifs: the dynamically executed twisting trees with exposed roots – modelled after examples by the Italian landscapist Girolamo Muziano – growing from a rising mound in the centre foreground; the fortified tower on a rock looming over the riverscape in the background on the right; the bridge over a waterfall cascading down the wooded hill on the far left; the distinctive shape of the clouds and graphic moonbeams. The painting is, however, not an exact copy of any surviving work by either of the Bril brothers. The general composition resembles that of an engraving, in reverse, by the Flemish printmaker Johann Sadeler I after a lost drawing by Paul Bril (Holl.XXI, 578).1 This compositional type was used repeatedly by both brothers. Compare, for example, a drawing in Darmstadt (Hessisches Landesmuseum) attributed to Matthijs Bril II,2 which was engraved by Johann Sadeler I in 1593 (Holl. XXI, 26),3 or an engraving by Raphael Sadeler I after a lost drawing by the same artist (Holl. XXI, 216).4 The twisting trees at the centre, with dynamically executed trunks, are especially close to those in the engraving by Raphael Sadeler I, which also includes a view of a river with a tower on a rock and men in a rowboat in the background on the left. A wooded hill with a waterfall similar to that in the present painting occurs in a drawing of c. 1581 attributed to Matthijs in Paris (Musée du Louvre).5 The right half of the composition, depicting a riverscape with a fortified tower on a rock and, beyond it, a distant cityscape, shows greater similarity to the Brils’ coastal landscapes, such as that in a drawing by Matthijs in Paris (Musée du Louvre).6 CF 1 Johann Sadeler I, after Paul Bril, River Landscape with Castle on a Rock to the Left, engr., 171 x 210 mm (plate); see Hollstein 1980, XXI, p. 179, no. 578, XXII, illus. on p. 160; and The Illus. Bartsch, 70:3, p. 133 no. 522, illus. on p. 134. 2 Matthijs Bril, Wooded Landscape with Tower and Hut in Back Centre, dwg., Darmstadt, Hessisches Landesmuseum, inv. no. AE 396; see Darmstadt 1992, cat. no. 6, illus. (as Paul Bril); Pijl in Saur Allgemeines Künstler- Lexikon, 14 (1996), p. 227; and Wood Ruby 1999, pp. 11, 16, 139 n. 113, 140 n. 127, fig. 11. 3 Johann Sadeler I, after Matthijs Bril, Landscape with a Castle on a Rock to the Left, engr., dated “1593”, 230 x 280 mm (plate); see Hollstein 1980, XXI, no. 26; and The Illus. Bartsch, 70:3, p. 267 no. 68, illus. on p. 266. 4 Raphael Sadeler I, after Matthijs Bril, River Landscape with a Rowing Boat, engr., 217 x 273 mm; see Hollstein 1980, XXI, p. 257 no. 216, XXII, illus. on p. 207. 5 See Lugt 1949, I, p. 20 no. 367, pl. XVIII. 6 Matthijs Bril, Ship on the Sea, dwg., Paris, Musée du Louvre, Département des arts graphiques, Cabinet de dessins, inv. no. MA 8658; see Lugt 1949, I, p. 16 no. 355, pl. XVIII; and Wood Ruby 1999, pp. 10, 139 n. 98, fig. 10.
Motif categoryLandscape
Collection
TechniquePainting
Object category
Keyword