St. Olaf College

Paulus Bril

landscapist, fresco painter
Netherlands
1554 - 1626

View objects by this artist.

Paulus Bril (also known as Paul Brill) was born in Antwerp in 1554. He began his artistic training under his father, a painter named Matthijs (Mattheus) Bril the Elder. He was the younger brother of Mattheus Bril the Younger, and actually completed many of this brother’s paintings after his early death.

In 1574, Paulus traveled to Rome. During his lifetime, Bril was one of the most popular and accomplished landscape painters in Rome. Many of Bril’s landscape frescoes can be seen in the Vatican City to this day, in addition to his numerous works on canvas and panel. He eventually rose to the position of Principe at the Accademia di San Luca, and befriended northern artists who were working in Rome at the time. One of these, Adam Elsheimer, would inspire a stylistic change in Bril’s works, leading to a more simple composition. His later works were often done in a more classical style. Paulus Bril remained in Rome for the remainder of his life, eventually passing away in 1626.

Madison Duran ‘20
February 2020

Sources:
“Paulus Bril (Antwerp 1554-Rome 1626) - A Landscape with Goatherds.” Royal Collection Trust,
www.rct.uk/collection/403033/a-landscape-with-goatherds.
“Paulus Brill.” The Getty, https://vocab.getty.edu/page/ulan/500005652.
The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica. “Paul Brill.” Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia
Britannica, Inc., 1 Jan. 2020, www.britannica.com/biography/Paul-Brill.

Image:
“Self-Portrait Attributed to Paul Bril.” RISD Museum,
https://risdmuseum.org/art-design/collection/self-portrait-39046?return=/art-design/collec
tion?search_api_fulltext=paul+bril&field_type=All&op=.