Landscape with a Large Tree

The Netherlandish painter Paul Bril, whose significant activity took place while he was active in Rome between about 1582 and 1626, was a key figure for landscape painting. He influenced numerous northern artists who traveled to Rome after him. This lively and freely drawn image of a tree is a classic Bril theme. It was randered in layers of gray and black wash but Bril's black chalk underdrawing is also visible in parts, for instance as along the outlines of the tree trunk. This energetically twisting tree harkens back to drawings of single trees by Pieter Bruegel the Elder like the one in the collection of the Royal Library Albert I in Brussels (inv. S.II 113 145; Mielke 19)). Bril could have known drawings by Bruegel because Bril is thought to have worked with Jan Brueghel, the artist's son, who brought with him to Rome some of his father's drawings.