Frederich Brentel
c. 1580 – 1651
A Winter Landscape with Travellers and a Swineherd beside a Lake; a Village and a Church beyond
Exhibitions:
Essay:
Friedrich Brentel was the son of Georges Brentel the Elder, with whom he was apprenticed in the early years of his career in Laugingen. It was in the city of Strasbourg that he established himself permanently, becoming a citizen in 1601, and here that he produced some of his finest works.
Brentel 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 seventeenth century. He established a very successful and busy workshop, and taught many 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, Jordaens, Dürer 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 collection of the Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris. His works are always of exquisite quality.