Peeter van Bredael

Pieter van Bredael or Peeter van Bredael (baptised 19 July 1629 – 9 March 1719) was a Flemish painter specializing in market scenes and village feasts set in Italianate landscapes or contemporary, usually, urban environments.

Biography

Pieter van Bredael was born in Antwerp in 1629, and was baptised on 19 July 1629 as the son of Peter and Maria Pais. He reportedly joined the workshop of David Ryckaert III on 20 January 1640 and studied there for four years. He undertook several travels abroad. It is known he travelled to Spain. Although there is no evidence for a stay in Italy, the inclusion in his landscapes of ruins of architecture from the environs of Rome points to a possible visit to Italy.

Upon his return to Antwerp in 1648 he married Anna Maria Veldener, the daughter of the prominent sculptor Jenijn Veldener. Several of his grandchildren such as Joseph van Bredael, Jan Pieter van Bredael the Younger and Jan Frans van Bredael were also painters.

He died in Antwerp where he was buried on 9 March 1719.

He worked as a copyist and is known to have copied battle scenes of the Dutch painter Philips Wouwerman. A drawing of an Equestrian Battle in the Mauritshuis has been attributed to van Bredael as being a copy after Wouwerman.