Paul Bril

Paul Bril helped make landscape a subject in its own right. His early pictures are dramatic Flemish fantasies of rocks, forests and sharp contrasts of light and dark; his later ones, influenced by Annibale Carracci and Adam Elsheimer, are calmer, with lower horizons and softer, more classical light. Many are small cabinet pictures on copper or panel.

Born in Antwerp around 1554, he left in 1574 and reached Rome before 1580, joining his brother Matthijs, who was painting frescoes in the Vatican. After Matthijs died in 1583, Paul took over much of his work and became one of the main landscape specialists in Rome. In 1621 he was the first foreigner to head the Accademia di San Luca. He collaborated with Jan Brueghel the Elder and taught Agostino Tassi, and his late style was crucial to the young Claude Lorrain. He died in Rome in 1626.

Fantastic Landscape and Coastal Landscape show the two sides of his work.