Breenbergh was born into a wealthy family as the son of a pharmacist Jan Breenbergh (c. 1557-1607) and Anna Buecker in Deventer. His father died young in 1607 and the family set out for Hoorn and later on to Amsterdam, where Bartholomeus must have had artistic training or an appreticeship. It remains speculative whether he was trained by Abraham Bloemaert, Pieter Lastman (Rembrandt's master) or the brothers Jan and SYmonsz. Pynas. In 1619 or 1620 he travelled to Rome for a period of seven years where he studied with Paul Bril.
In Rome he was one of the founding members of the Bentvueghels together with Cornelis van Poelenburgh. Bartholomeus going by the nickname of Ferret (de Fret). From 1623 onward, he came completely under the influence of the Italian landscapes of the slightly older Cornelis van Poelenburgh. The works of both painters are sometimes very difficult to distinguish from one another.
When exactly Breenbergh returned to The Netherlands is not clear, though it must have been before 1633, when he married Rebecca Schellingwou, the daughter of a cloth merchant. After settling in Amsterdam he focused on painting in the manner of Pieter Lastman (1583–1633), Jacob Pynas (around 1585–1650) and Claes Moeyaert (1590/91–1655).
The present drawing not mentioned in Roethlisberger, though fully corresponds with closely comparable recorded drawings in Hamburg, Berlin, Leyden, London and Amsterdam.[1]
[1] Martin Roethlisberger, Bartholomäus Breenbergh, handzeichnungen.
Walter De Gruyter & Co. Berlin, 1969. Cat. no. 27, 60, 90, 91, 125, 126, 127.
