Attributed to Mattheus Ignatius van Bree, Belgian 1773-1839- Portrait of a young boy, half-length, leaning on a table and reading a book; oil on canvas, oval, bears partially decipherable old label inscribed 'The painting to which this label is attached is a portrait of my father in his 13th year. He / was born on 26 Jan 1790, [?] after the conclusion of the Peace of Amiens (March 1802) / He was sent to school at... [?]. In the autumn he had an attack of ague of which he / almost died, and... [?] as soon as it was at all possible, his likeness should / be taken. This picture was accordingly painted by Van Bree, who in 1827 became Director of / the Antwerp Academy, and died in 1839. His chief work is the Death of Rubens now in the / Antwerp Museum. When war was again declared (May 1803), my father was smuggled aboard / an American vessel, the Pheonix of Baltimore,... [?] landed at Dover in the pilot's boat. / Thomas Brooksbank, 14 June 1885' attached to the central horizontal stretcher bar, 61.5 x 49.6 cm. Provenance: Formerly, the sitter's family, according to the label attached to the reverse. Note: Van Bree's portrait of Priest Jacques-Matthieu De Moor, in the collection of the Royal Museum of Fine Arts in Antwerp [1289] bears a striking similarity in handling and composition to the present work.