Carel Breydel, called 'Le Chevalier' (1678 - 1733)

• Was a Flemish painter of battle pieces, equestrian paintings and landscapes.
• Karel Breydel was an older brother of Frans Breydel, who became court painter in Kassel. 

• He was in Antwerp a pupil of Pieter Rijsbraeck for three years and then of Peter Ykens.

• He left for a trip to Italy and travelled via Frankfurt and Nuremberg.

• When he heard about his brother's success in Kassel, he abandoned his plans to go to Italy and travelled instead to Kassel to join his brother.

• Here the two brothers worked together for two years with considerable success.

• He was back in Antwerp in 1703 where he became a master of the Guild of Saint Luke in 1704. 

• He is recorded in Brussels in 1723 and in Ghent in 1726.

• Breydel worked as a copyist and produced in 1703 copies after Griffier and Jan Brueghel the Elder for art dealer Jakob de Vos in Amsterdam.

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