Houbraken wrote that his brother Engel was also a painter, and that Adriaen was already living in Lyon when Johannes Glauber made his grand tour. Cabel moved to Lyon as a young man and spent the rest of his life there.
According to the RKD, he lived in Lyon from 1655-1658, then Rome from 1659–1666, and finally Lyon again from 1668 to his death. His bentname was Geestigheid. His work is sometimes confused with that of his brother Engel van der Cabel (1641-after 1695), also known as Ange or Angelo. Engel accompanied his brother on his travels and they both married on the same day.[2] Like his brother, Engel became a member of the Bentvueghels with the nickname Corydon, and he moved with him to Lyons, where in the year 1672, he became a 'Maître-Garde' of the Guild of Saint Luke there.
Van der Cabel's best known student was Lyonnaise landscape painter Adrien Manglard, who was also his godson. Like van der Cabel, Manglard moved to Rome, where he became one of the best known landscape painters of his day. Van der Cabel introduced young Manglard to the Dutch landscape painting tradition, as well as the Romano-Bolognese landscape painting style typical of the seventeenth century, which came to influence Cabel during his stay in Italy.
Adriaen van der Cabel was a Dutch Golden Age artist who was born and raised in a small town near The Hague. He was a student of Jan Van Goyen then travelled to Paris in 1655 before finally settling in Lyon as a young man. His work can be confused with that of his brother Engel van der Cabel, who was 10 years his younger, as their two artistic careers followed a similar direction. Both were members of the Bentvueghels and have travelled many times together until they stayed in Lyon, where Adriaen lived until his death. The 2 brothers were obviously close. During their stay in Rome from 1659 to 1666, they are recorded in a police report as having jointly caused a fight! Adriaen specialised in painting, engraving, and drawing watercolours of landscapes, whose style is characterised by the softness of its colours. He acquired his skills thanks to his mixed training between the Italian and Dutch schools. His artistic work has been part of private collections such as those of Gaspar de Roomer, the Medici family and the Orsini and Colonna families.
ABOUT THE SUBJECT: This work is a perfect example of the artist's preference for Mediterranean landscapes. Some of his details of style are reflected here, the representation of open spaces, ancient monuments, and the use of bright colours in cloth to contrast the light greys that predominate in the composition. Much activity is shown in the exquisite little picture with a beautiful mannerist composition which creates depth through the lightening of sky tones to the horizon line. There is a tranquil calm shown typical of his work with each figure group separately shown in some varying activity. Many of the component elements in this work are shown within his extensive collection of engravings at the Rijksmuseum. Figure groups, buildings even the hills within the landscape appear in many of his imaginary works when he created these idyllic capriccio scenes.
