Signed F Brentel and dated 1627

Goucahe on vellum within a gold border

210 x 165 mm. (8 x 6 in.)

SOLD TO THE NATIONAL GALLERY OF ART, WASHINGTON

Brentel was the son of Georges Brentel the elder with whom he was apprenticed in the early years of his career. It was in the city of Strasbourg that he established himself permanently and where he was to paint some of his finest works. He was to become one of the most remarkable of a group of artists working in gouache in this Alsacienne city in the early years of the 17th Century. He was to establish a very successful and busy workshop, and taught many of well known artists in the same medium, including Johann Wilhelm Baur and his own children, Jean-Friedrich and Anna Maria.

Many of his compositions were based on works of other famous artists, such as Rubens, Jordeans, Drer and van Dyck. Possibly his best works are incorporated into the two volumes of the book of hours of Guillaume de Bade, now in the Bibliothque Nationale, Paris.

It has been suggested by the Muse des Beaux Arts in Strasbourg that this gouache may well be after an engraving by a Northern artist.