An Italianate landscape with drovers and their herd by a river

The youngest son of Pierre Patel, Pierre-Antoine Patel also specialised in carefully balanced landscapes dominated by classical ruins. Their canvases have often been confused, and as the great amateur Pierre-Jean Mariette commented, the formula created by the father was continued by the son so that 'sometimes a painting is attributed to the father that, in fact, belongs to the son' (Abecedario et autres notes inidits de cet amateur sur les arts et les artists, Paris 1851-60, IV, p. 89). Patel the Younger, who was appointed 'maitre peintre et peintre ordinaire du Roy' in 1680, is especially noted for his study of the effects of light and atmospheric perspective.