Joseph van Bredael

In 1706 Jozef van Bredael and his cousin Jan Frans entered into a contract with the Antwerp art dealer Jacob de Witte to produce copies after the paintings of Philips Wouwerman and Jan Brueghel the Elder for a number of years.

Here he worked as a copyist and made several copies after Claude Lorrain for Jean-François Leriget de La Faye, an important French art collector.

[6] Other historians state that Jozef only moved to France in 1735 or 1736 after he had completed the paperwork related to the inheritance of his brother Jan Peeter who had died in Vienna.

[1][2] Joseph Bredael painted mostly landscapes and battles and made both copies and pastiches of compositions of 17th-century painters who were still popular in the 18th century such as Jan Brueghel the Elder, Philips Wouwerman and Claude.

He interpreted the Brueghelian idiom through the aesthetics of his day and added a personal note to the contours of his figures and his strokes.

Van Bredael's quality of execution and delicate naturalism placed him amongst the best followers and imitators of Jan Brueghel the Elder, alongside Peeter Gijsels, Théobald Michau and Mathys Schoevaerdts.