Brill, Paul

Paul Brill, also called Paulus Bril, (born 1554, Antwerp—died October 7, 1626, Rome), Flemish artist who was perhaps the most popular painter of landscapes in Rome in the late 16th and early 17th centuries. His early forest landscapes derive in style partly from Mannerism, but after 1600 he disciplined and simplified his compositions under the influence of the German painter Adam Elsheimer. His latest work was classical in character. Several of his fresco cycles survive in Vatican City and elsewhere as well as numerous individual works on panel and canvas. His brother Mattheus (1550–83) was also an accomplished painter, but he died young, and Paul finished many of Mattheus’ uncompleted works.