Italian coastal landscape with market scene

Oil painting on canvas,

70 x 88 cm. - framed 95 x 113 cm.

Provenance:

- Mercier & Cie, Lille, France, 05.28.2000, lot 223

- Dorotheum, Vienna, 4.10.2000, lot 496 (estimate 18,000-22,000)

The work, particularly rich in detail, depicts a fantasy coastal landscape, as the scene of a teeming morning market that animates the main square, with a multitude of characters, including fruit, vegetable and livestock merchants, fishermen in the distance and buyers.

The signed painting is a typical work of the well-known painter Alexander van Bredael (1663–1720), a native of Antwerp, specializing in highly imaginative market scenes and village festivals, slides of everyday city life.

His works are often set in Mediterranean landscapes, where the architectural models of Italian inspiration stand out, such as the classic village perched overlooking the shore, and the particular fountain that stands out in the center of the square, decorated with masks, female figures and a statue of a satyr on top.

Even the style with which the characters are outlined and the tasty genre scenes perfectly reproduce the prototypes of the master, characterized by a use of bright colors, and by an extremely refined attention to detail, which combines his ability as a landscape architect to that of naturamortista.

Finally, the particular beauty and wealth of detail with which the depictions of animals are rendered, the beautiful and rustic still lifes exhibited by the vegetable and fruit seller, the silhouettes of the characters, minutely described and enjoyable in every detail, deserve mention.

Works by the author that appeared on the market, with stylistic and compositional characteristics similar to our painting:

- Alexander van Bredael, Great pastoral feast among ancient ruins, Hampel (Munich) 06.26.2009, nr. 248 (https: //www.hampel-auctions.com/archive-catalogue-detail.php? La = de & a = 77 & s = 161 & id = 77304 & a ...)

- Alexander van Bredael, Figures in a stream outside the city, Lempertz (Keulen) 22-11-2008, nr. 1292 (https://rkd.nl/en/explore/images/220380)

- Alexander van Bredael, Landscape of the South with a City on a Bay, Travelers and Merchants in the Foreground, Christie (London) 17/12/1999, n ° 106 (https://rkd.nl/en/explore/images/ 63122)

- Alexander van Bredael, Interior with a peasant couple, Sotheby's (London) 14/12/2000, n ° 143 (https://rkd.nl/en/explore/images/102512)

- Alexander van Bredael, Landscape of the South with a City on a Bay, Travelers and Merchants in the Foreground, Venduehuis der Notarissen (The Hague) 1994-11-08 (https://rkd.nl/en/explore/images/ 103588)

Work in excellent conservation conditions.

The work, like all our objects, is sold with a certificate of photographic authenticity in accordance with the law.

For more information, please contact us.

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