English: Description in Flemish paintings C. 1600-C. 1800 III, Nationalmuseum, Stockholm, 2010, cat.no. 33:

Technical notes: The support consists of a single board of oak (0.6–0.7 cm thick) with a horizontal grain. All of the edges have been bevelled from 1–4 cm. The support is still in its original format.

The preparation consists of a white chalk ground applied thinly and evenly with a brush to cover the structure of the support completely. In places the ground has been applied over the upper and lower edge of the panel. There is a transparent light brownish imprimatura. A sketch was probably made (faintly visible in the dying horse in the foreground) in a light brown colour possibly executed with a brush.

The paint layer is thin but applied opaquely. The foreground and background have been painted separately and reserves left for details such as the tower on the right. The tree to the left of the tower has been painted over the sky. The figures have been rendered sketchily in opaque paint and with distinct facial features. Impasto highlights are present in the figures and the clouds. The combatants on horseback are painted in blue and red in the foreground. The central scene with a fallen white horse can also be seen in other paintings by Breydel, such as no. 32. The figures in the foreground and background are rendered thinly and are today semi-transparent (the paint layers have faded). The main battle scene has been rendered in thin paint over the landscape in the background.

The materials, technique and execution match no. 32 completely. There is a tendency to cleavage in the sky and the paint surface is rather abraded. The painting underwent conservation treatment in 1934.

Provenance: Karl XIII’s estate inventory 1818; Karl XV’s coll., Rosersberg; Purchased in 1873 by auction after Karl XV together with no. 32 (Rbg 66), cat. no. 759–760; Transferred from the NM (formerly NM 1178) to Rosersberg c. 1943.

Bibliography: Göthe 1887, p. 32, no. 1178; Saur, vol. 14 1966, p. 185.

This battle scene is a companion piece to no. 32 and depicts a cavalry battle between Turks and Austrians. Breydel painted a number of battle scenes with this theme.1

In the foreground of the Nationalmuseum’s painting the soldiers with their multicoloured garments and flags are depicted in battle enveloped by gunpowder smoke. In the middle ground to the right, a tower and a crenellated wall are depicted, to the left a plane and an encampment in front of which can be seen a mounted rider and a baggage train. The background contains a mountain and behind it a blue sky with light clouds. As is the case with no. 32, this work is also thoughtfully composed with an explicit foreground in which the battle is taking place, a middle ground with a fortress, a crenellated wall and diverse figures and a landscape in the background. The format of both works is identical, as is the palette, materials, technique and execution.

This painting, like its companion piece no. 32, belonged for some time to Karl XIII’s collection of art and then to Karl XV’s collection at Rosersberg. On Karl XV’s death the painting together with its companion piece was purchased by the Nationalmuseum. In 1943 both pictures were returned to Rosersberg, where they still hang today. KS 1 See no. 32 (Rbg 66) and also Sotheby’s, Amsterdam, 3 May 1999, lot 53.

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