![Jan Frans van Bredael (I) - A cavalry skirmish](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/ac/Jan_Frans_van_Bredael_%28I%29_-_A_cavalry_skirmish.jpg)
Jan Frans van Bredael or Jan Frans van Bredael the Elder
[Jan Frans van Bredael (I)]
at the Netherlands Institute for Art History
The Netherlands Institute for Art History or RKD (Dutch: RKD-Nederlands Instituut voor Kunstgeschiedenis), previously Rijksbureau voor Kunsthistorische Documentatie (RKD), is located in The Hague and is home to the largest art history center i ...
[Jan Frans van Bredael, ''Elegant hunting party resting at a blacksmith’s'']
at Dorotheum (1 April 1686 – 19 February 1750) was a Flemish painter known for his landscapes, battle scenes and equestrian paintings. A prominent member of the third generation of the van Bredael family of painters of Antwerp, he was active mainly in his native Antwerp. He worked also in London and Paris where he enjoyed the patronage of an aristocratic clientele.
[
]
Life
Jan Frans van Bredael was born into an artist family in Antwerp as the eldest son of Alexander van Bredael
Alexander van Bredael (1 April 1663 – 14 July 1720) was a Flemish painter known for Italianate landscapes and genre scenes of fairs, cattle markets and villages. (1663–1720) and Cornelia Sporckmans. Jan Frans trained with his father.[''Jan Frans van Bredael'' in: Frans Jozef Peter Van den Branden, ''Geschiedenis der Antwerpsche schilderschool'', Antwerpen, 1883, p. 1034-1035 ] His father as well as his grandfather Peeter van Bredael
Pieter van Bredael or Peeter van Bredael (1629–1719) was a Flemish painter specializing in market scenes and village feasts set in Italianate landscapes or contemporary, usually, urban environments.
Life
Pieter van Bredael was born in Antwe ...
and several cousins were also artists.[Walther Bernt, ''The Netherlandish painters of the seventeenth century, Volume 1'', Phaidon, 1970, p. 19]
Jan Frans trained under his father.[ In 1706 Jan Frans van Bredael and his cousin ]Jozef
Jozef or Józef is a Dutch, Breton, Polish and Slovak version of masculine given name Joseph. A selection of people with that name follows. For a comprehensive list see and ..
* Józef Beck (1894–1944), Polish foreign minister in the 1930s
* J ...
entered into a contract with the Antwerp art dealer Jacob de Witte to produce for a number of years copies after the paintings of Philips Wouwerman
Philips Wouwerman (also Wouwermans) (24 May 1619 (baptized) – 19 May 1668) was a Dutch painter of hunting, landscape and battle scenes.
Life and work
Philips Wouwerman was one of the most versatile and prolific artists of the Dutch Golden ...
and Jan Brueghel the Elder
Jan Brueghel (also Bruegel or Breughel) the Elder (, ; ; 1568 – 13 January 1625) was a Flemish painter and draughtsman. He was the son of the eminent Flemish Renaissance painter Pieter Bruegel the Elder. A close friend and frequent collaborato ...
. Under the contract, Jan Frans was to receive for each copy he produced 10 guilders in the first year, 12 guilders in the second and 14 guilders in the third and fourth years plus a bonus of 2 shillings. At the end of the contract he would also get a new blue broadcloth coat. His brother Jozef was paid a marginally lower fee but was not bound like Jan Frans by an exclusivity obligation to work only for Jacob de Witte. Since Jan Frans and Jozef did not sign the copies they made, it is not possible to distinguish who was responsible for the individual copies that were produced under the contract.Die Künstlerfamilie Van Bredael
at wouwerman.de It is possible that the not so scrupulous art dealer de Witte even sold these copies as originals since the copies were such good imitations of the style of the original artists. Jan Frans finally ended up working for de Witte for a period of nine years.[Ad. Siret, ''BREDAEL, Jean-François VAN'']
in Biographie nationale de Belgique
Jan Frans van Bredael worked in England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...
early in his career (probably before 1716).[ Little is known with certainty about his residence in England. He is deemed to have enjoyed the patronage of important clients, among whom ]James Radclyffe, 3rd Earl of Derwentwater
James Radclyffe, 3rd Earl of Derwentwater (26 June 1689 – 24 February 1716) was an English Jacobite, executed for treason.
Life
Radclyffe was the son of Edward Radclyffe, 2nd Earl of Derwentwater and Lady Mary Tudor, the natural daughter of ...
and possibly even the King.[Matthew Pilkington, ''A General Dictionary of Painters: Containing Memoirs of the Lives and Works of the Most Eminent Professors of the Art of Painting, from Its Revival, by Cimabue, in the Year 1250, to the Present Time. A New Edition, Revised and Corrected Throughout, with Numerous Additions, Particularly of the Most Distinguished Artists of the British School'', Volume 1, T. M'Lean, 1824, p. 114][
In the period from 1719 to 1725 he was active in Paris. He returned to Antwerp in 1725 where he joined the Antwerp ]Guild of Saint Luke
The Guild of Saint Luke was the most common name for a city guild for painters and other artists in early modern Europe, especially in the Low Countries. They were named in honor of the Evangelist Luke, the patron saint of artists, who was ide ...
in the same year. He became deacon of the Guild the next year and again in the years 1733, 1734 and 1735. Jan Frans van Bredael married Catharina de Rijck. The couple had two daughters and a son. The son who was also named Jan Frans (born in 1729) became a painter.[
In his lifetime van Bredael enjoyed an excellent reputation. It is reported that when King ]Louis XV of France
Louis XV (15 February 1710 – 10 May 1774), known as Louis the Beloved (french: le Bien-Aimé), was King of France from 1 September 1715 until his death in 1774. He succeeded his great-grandfather Louis XIV at the age of five. Until he reached ...
visited Antwerp visited his studio in 1746 he acquired four small works from the artist.[
Jan Frans van Bredael died in Antwerp in 1750.][
]
Work
Jan Frans van Bredael painted in a variety of genres including history and religious painting. However, he is best known for his landscapes with genre
Genre () is any form or type of communication in any mode (written, spoken, digital, artistic, etc.) with socially-agreed-upon conventions developed over time. In popular usage, it normally describes a category of literature, music, or other for ...
scenes, battle and hunting scenes and equestrian paintings. While he initially mainly copied works of Wouwerman and Brueghel, Jan Frans van Bredael was able to develop his own style. Van Bredael quoted Wouwerman’s tropes in his own compositions of equestrian and battle scenes. In his landscapes he remained closer in style to Jan Brueghel the Elder.[
As many of the members of the extended van Bredael family painted in a similar style and in the same genres, it is not always easy or possible to ascribe a particular work to a specific van Bredael.][
As van Bredael appears to have worked mainly for the export market, very few of his works are in public collections in his home country.]
Notes
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bredael, Jan Frans van
Flemish landscape painters
Flemish genre painters
Painters from Antwerp
1686 births
1750 deaths