Karel Breydel

Karel Breydel or Carel Breydel, called 'Le Chevalier' (1678 in Antwerp – 1733 in Antwerp) was a Flemish painter of battle pieces, equestrian paintings and landscapes.

Life Very few details about the life of Karel Breydel have been recorded. Most of the information about Karel Breydel's life is based on the writings of the French 18th-century biographer Jean-Baptiste Descamps who included a lengthy biography of Breydel in his La Vie des Peintres Flamands, Allemands et Hollandois. This information is not very reliable as Descamps was prone to inventing stories to make his biographies more interesting.

Karel Breydel was an older brother of Frans Breydel, who became court painter in Kassel. He was in Antwerp a pupil of Pieter Rijsbraeck for three years and then of Peter Ykens. Work

Karel Breydel is known as a painter of battle pieces and cavalry attacks. These paintings are ingeniously composed and painted with spirit after the manner of Adam Frans van der Meulen, the leading Flemish battle painter of the 17th century. He also executed a number of landscapes and views of the Rhine in the manner of Griffier.

Breydel worked as a copyist and produced in 1703 copies after Griffier and Jan Brueghel the Elder for art dealer Jakob de Vos in Amsterdam.

Several leading European museums own paintings by Breydel.