Paul Bril

Paul Bril (1553 or 1554 – 7 October 1626) was a Flemish painter and printmaker principally known for his landscapes. He spent most of his active career in Rome. His Italianate landscape paintings and drawings had a major influence on 17th century landscape painting in Italy and Northern Europe. He is credited as one of the pioneers of the wooded landscape in European art.

Life Bril is believed to have been born in Antwerp although it is possible his birthplace was Breda. He was the son of the painter Mathys Baertmaker (also given as Baermaker, Bargiemaker and Mathys de Caerdemaker) who went by the name Bril Janszone and his wife Anna Timmermans Petersdr. (died 1558). The brothers likely started their artistic training with their father in Antwerp. In these works he relied on his brother's drawings. Paul's earliest known works date from the late 1580s. He established his reputation with commissions from Pope Gregory XIII in the Collegio Romano.

He had many pupils including his son Cyriacus Bril, Luigi Carboni, Balthasar Lauwers, Willem van Nieulandt II, Pieter Spierinckx, Agostino Tassi and Hendrick Cornelisz Vroom.

Paul Bril died in Rome in 1626.

Agostino Tassi may have been Paul's pupil. Tassi later became the master of Claude Lorrain. Paul Bril thus forms one of the links between the panoramic views of Joachim Patinir and the ideal landscape evolved by Nicolas Poussin and Claude Lorrain.

Bril introduced Jan Brueghel the Elder to Cardinal Federico Borromeo, who subsequently became Brueghel's most important patron. He also let the Dutch landscape artist Bartholomeus Breenbergh live in his Roman residence for many years. The Antwerp artists Sebastiaen Vrancx and Willem van Nieulandt II were also affected by their contact with Bril's workshop in Rome.