Bartholomeus Breenbergh
Deventer 1599-1659 Amsterdam

Farmhouse on a Hilltop

Brush and brown wash with traces of pen and brown ink
264 x 370 mm; 10 3/8 x 14 1/2 in

PROVENANCE
Dr. G. L. Laporte, New York (Lugt 1170)
Roberta Suida and Robert Manning, New York

LITERATURE
Marcel Roethlisberger, Bartolomäus Breenbergh: Handzeichnungen, Berlin, 1969, no. 27a, illus.
Alan Chong, The Drawings of Cornelis van Poelenburch, Master Drawings, vol. XXV, no. 1, 1987, p.28, cat. no. 18 (as Poelenburgh)

Breenbergh arrived in Rome towards the end of 1619, at a time when landscape art was undergoing profound changes. He was soon working in the studio of the greatest catalyst for this new style of landscape art, his fellow northerner, Paul Bril. The latter had been resident in Rome since 1584, and Breenbergh was fortunate to be apprenticed to an artist with an established workshop and excellent contacts in a city where many foreign artists suffered from lack of patronage. Breenbergh remained in Bril's studio for seven years, until the older artist's death in 1626. His only patron, the Prince Orsini, he inherited from Bril himself. The affluence enjoyed by his family must surely have been a factor in his ability to study in Rome for so long.

The drawings which Breenbergh made of Rome and the Campagna in the 1620s are among his most successful achievements. Here he has used ink wash to produce a dramatic chiaroscuro effect. Under Bril's tuition he learnt to use transitional bands of dark and light to create a sense of recession, but quickly developed a less mannered style than his master. He was possibly inspired in this respect by the naturalistic landscape paintings and drawings of the Caracci family and other Italian masters. It is clear that plein air studies were the staple of Breenbergh's activities during his stay in Rome and very few paintings exist from that period. Instead he amassed quantities of drawings which he depended on as source material for the remainder of his career. On his return to Amsterdam in 1629, he became one of the pioneers of the Italianate school of Dutch painting.

In his sketching expeditions in Italy, he was frequently the companion of the Utrecht artist, Cornelis van Poelenburgh, four years his senior. Both were members of the Netherlandish society of artists called the Schildersbent (q.v. no. 14), where Breenbergh was given the nickname Het Fet ('Ferret'), and Polenburgh, Satiro, ('Satyr'). Their styles are often confused, and the present drawing was itself given to Poelenburgh in 1987, despite its long-standing ascription to Breenbergh. However, the range of pen marks and the staccato brilliance of the washes, as well as the strikingly low viewpoint, all indicate Breenbergh as the author.