
Pieter Bruegel the Elder Painting Reproductions Gallery 1 of 4
c.1525-1569Flemish Northern Renaissance Painter
Pieter Bruegel the Elder or Brueghel (c.1525 - September 9, 1569) was a Netherlandish Renaissance painter and printmaker known for his landscapes and peasant scenes (Genre Painting). He is nicknamed 'Peasant Bruegel' to distinguish him from other members of the Bruegel dynasty, but is also the one generally meant when the context does not make clear which "Bruegel" is being referred to. From 1559 he dropped the 'h' from his name and started signing his paintings as Bruegel.
Life
There are records that he was born in Breda, Netherlands, but it is uncertain whether the Dutch town of Breda or the Belgian town of Bree, called Breda in Latin, is meant. He was the son of a peasant residing in the village of Breugel. He was an apprentice of Pieter Coecke van Aelst, whose daughter Mayken he later married. He spent some time in France and Italy, and then went to Antwerp, where in 1551 he was accepted as a master in the painters' guild. He traveled to Italy soon after, and then returned to Antwerp before settling in Brussels permanently 10 years later. He died there on 9 September 1569. Other accounts give 1590 as the date of his death.
He was the father of Pieter Bruegel the Younger and Jan Bruegel the Elder. Both became painters, but as they were very young children when their father died, neither received any training from him. According to Carel van Mander, it is likely that they were instructed by their grandmother.
Style
In Bruegel's later years he painted in a simpler style than the Italianate art that prevailed in his time. The most obvious influence on his art is the older Dutch master Hieronymus Bosch, particularly in Bruegel's early "demonological" paintings such as The Triumph of Death and Dulle Griet (Mad Meg). It was in nature, however, that he found his greatest inspirations as he is identified as being a master of landscapes. It was in these landscapes that Bruegel created a story, with almost several scenes seemingly combined in one painting. Such works can be seen in The Fall of the Rebel Angels and the previously mentioned The Triumph of Death.
Themes
Bruegel specialized in landscapes populated by peasants. He is often credited as being the first Western painter to paint landscapes for their own sake, rather than as a backdrop to a religious allegory.
Attention to the life and manners of peasants was rare in the arts in Bruegel's time. His earthy, unsentimental but vivid depiction of the rituals of village life including agriculture, hunts, meals, festivals, dances, and games are unique windows on a vanished folk culture and a prime source of iconographic evidence about both physical and social aspects of 16th century life. For example, the painting Netherlandish Proverbs illustrates dozens of then-contemporary aphorisms, and Children's Games shows the variety of amusements enjoyed by young people. His winter landscapes of 1565 are taken as corroborative evidence of the severity of winters during the Little Ice Age.
Using abundant spirit and comic power, he created some of the early images of acute social protest in art history. Examples include paintings such as The Fight Between Carnival and Lent (a satire of the conflicts of the Reformation) and engravings like The Ass in the School and Strongboxes Battling Piggybanks. On his deathbed he reportedly ordered his wife to burn the most subversive of his drawings to protect his family from political persecution.
87 Paintings of Bruegel the Elder
Kunsthistorisches Museum Vienna Austria
The Hunters in the Snow (Winter)
$1759
$86.22
Kunsthistorisches Museum Vienna Austria
Winter Landscape with Skaters and Bird Trap
$881
$87.07
Gemaldegalerie Berlin Germany
Netherlandish Proverbs
$4458
$51.35
Kunsthistorisches Museum Vienna Austria
Children's Games
$4437
$87.07
Kunsthistorisches Museum Vienna Austria
The Fight Between Carnival and Lent
$4883
$87.42
Kunsthistorisches Museum Vienna Austria
The Tower of Babel
$4918
$90.31
Kunsthistorisches Museum Vienna Austria
The Gloomy Day
$1707
$88.10
Kunsthistorisches Museum Vienna Austria
The Conversion of Saul
$1829
$83.50
Alte Pinakothek Munich Germany
The Land of Cockaigne
$818
$79.58
Kunsthistorisches Museum Vienna Austria
Peasant Wedding
$1920
$50.69
Kunsthistorisches Museum Vienna Austria
The Peasant Dance
$1910
$83.33
Royal Museums of Fine Arts Brussels Belgium
Landscape with the Fall of Icarus
$1689
$47.90
Hessisches Landesmuseum Darmstadt Germany
The Magpie on the Gallows
$855
$55.96
National Gallery London United Kingdom
The Adoration of the Kings
$3313
$88.61
Detroit Institute of Arts Michigan USA
The Wedding Dance
$3420
$91.33
Metropolitan Museum of Art New York USA
The Harvesters
$1518
$88.78
Boston Museum of Fine Arts Massachusetts USA
Combat between Carnival and Lent
$1096
$47.90
Frick Collection New York USA
The Three Soldiers
$576
$47.90
Philadelphia Museum of Art Pennsylvania USA
The Unfaithful Shepherd
$763
$51.22
Philadelphia Museum of Art Pennsylvania USA
Wedding Dance
$1541
$91.50
Royal Museums of Fine Arts Brussels Belgium
The Census at Bethlehem
$1840
$85.71
Private Collection
The Kermesse of the Feast of St. George
$1456
$65.15
Courtauld Institute of Art London United Kingdom
Landscape with the Flight into Egypt
$997
$49.51
Courtauld Institute of Art London United Kingdom
Christ and the Woman taken in Adultery
$611
$47.90