A river landscape with boats by a village

From a family of Flemish painters that included his brother Jan Pieter, Josef van Bredael was primarily a landscape artist. Beginning in 1706, at the age of eighteen, he spent four years copying works by Jan Breughel I, Philips Wouverman and other artists for the Antwerp dealer J. de Witte. In 1735, Van Bredael moved to Paris where he enjoyed the patronage of the Duke of Orléans. The present work displays the keen observation of the natural world and high quality of execution that places Van Bredael among the best imitators of Jan 'Velvet' Breughel, alongside Pieter Gysels, Theobald Michau and Mathys Schoevaerdts.