Beskrivning: Se även beskrivning i den engelska versionen

Catalogue 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.

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