Market scene in a river village - Josef van Bredael

Josef van Bredael known as Josef van Breda or Breda (Antwerp 1688 - Paris 1719).

Born in Antwerp on August 14, 1788, from a long line of painters, Josef van Bredael is a Flemish master who continued the tradition of Flemish landscape painters until the dawn of the 18th century. As such, he is considered one of the best followers of Jan Brueghel the Elder. His training is not unrelated to his art because after having started in the workshop of his father (Joris van Bredael) he began at the age of 18 with his cousin Jan Frans and for a period of four years to copy, for the account of the Antwerp merchant De Witte, small paintings of great masters such as Philip Wouverman or Claude Lorrain, and especially works of Brueghel de Velours.
Many of them were sold as originals or were later considered as such. Similarly, when he later affixed his monogrammed signature JB, it was the cause of many misattributions to Jan Brueghel.

Klaus Ertz, the famous German art historian specializing in Flemish painters and author of numerous catalogs raisonnés (including Brueghel, Momper, van Cleve...), writes in the one devoted to Josef Brueghel that "the artist's signature was not a true one. ), writes in the one dedicated to Josef Van Bredael: "after Jan Brueghel the Younger, Bredael is the painter who has kept alive the artistic heritage of the great inventor Jan Brueghel the Elder" which is no small compliment considering the fame of the other painters who have tried their hand at it.

"Joseph van Bredael is one of the best painters alongside Pieter Gysels, Theobald Michaud or Mathias Schoevaderdts, among those who continued the work of John Brueghel the Elder. The light brushstrokes give a nuanced impression that only hints at things: he does not depict with too much detail, with too much precision. The way he models his figures, this artistic conception leads, on the overall impression, to a cameo tone that falls into the category of the quite typical blue". The time of the Brueghels - Klaus Ertz.

Other words we found about the painter that lend themselves perfectly to the study of our painting, "He executed his successful compositions in many almost identical versions, as shown by the two versions of a village with a windmill, one of which was sold by Christie's on July 4, 2012 in London, lot 148 and the other was sold by Galerie De Jonckheere."
The Galerie De Jonckheere is the author of very interesting notes on the painter, in a box that we reproduce in documentation :

We have been able to find, like the above-mentioned painting of a village with mills, two other versions of our painting, also on canvas, which have passed through the art market and even, if we look again, at least one of the versions originally painted by Jan Brueghel de Velours (see all in documentation).

Painting seen and attributed to Josef van Bredael by the Turquin cabinet.
(The expertise document will be given to the buyer).

Condition: painting entrusted to our restorer, untouched, resumption of the glazes of the sky and numerous, but minimal or light reintegrations, mainly at the level of the animated scene, re-varnished.

Period : very early 18th century, most probably between 1706 and 1710.

Dimensions : frame 47,5 cm x 33,5 cm - frame 62,5 cm x 48,5 cm.