Portrait of Pieter Bruegel the Elder

Pieter Bruegel the Elder Painting Reproductions 3 of 4

c.1525-1569

Flemish 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 Bruegel the Elder Paintings

Peasant and Birdnester, 1568 by Bruegel the Elder | Painting Reproduction

Peasant and Birdnester 1568

Oil Painting
$2922
Canvas Print
$102.12
SKU: BEP-6443
Pieter Bruegel the Elder
Original Size: 59.3 x 68.3 cm
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna, Austria

Landscape with the Fall of Icarus (Detail), c.1555/58 by Bruegel the Elder | Painting Reproduction

Landscape with the Fall of Icarus (Detail) c.1555/58

Canvas Print
$78.66
SKU: BEP-6444
Pieter Bruegel the Elder
Original Size: unknown
Royal Museums of Fine Arts, Brussels, Belgium

Census at Bethlehem, c.1566 by Bruegel the Elder | Painting Reproduction

Census at Bethlehem c.1566

Oil Painting
$8263
Canvas Print
$52.97
SKU: BEP-6445
Pieter Bruegel the Elder
Original Size: unknown
Private Collection

The Large Fishes Devouring the Small Fishes, 1557 by Bruegel the Elder | Painting Reproduction

The Large Fishes Devouring the Small Fishes 1557

Paper Art Print
$47.93
SKU: BEP-6446
Pieter Bruegel the Elder
Original Size: 22.3 x 28.9 cm
Private Collection

The Fight of the Money-Bags, c.1563 by Bruegel the Elder | Painting Reproduction

The Fight of the Money-Bags c.1563

Paper Art Print
$47.93
SKU: BEP-6447
Pieter Bruegel the Elder
Original Size: 24 x 30.7 cm
Private Collection

A Village Kermesse, c.1565 by Bruegel the Elder | Painting Reproduction

A Village Kermesse c.1565

Oil Painting
$4854
Canvas Print
$50.33
SKU: BEP-6448
Pieter Bruegel the Elder
Original Size: 76 x 105 cm
Private Collection

The Parable of the Good Shepherd, 1565 by Bruegel the Elder | Painting Reproduction

The Parable of the Good Shepherd 1565

Paper Art Print
$47.93
SKU: BEP-6449
Pieter Bruegel the Elder
Original Size: 22.4 x 29.5 cm
Private Collection

Prospectus Tyburtinus, n.d. by Bruegel the Elder | Painting Reproduction

Prospectus Tyburtinus n.d.

Paper Art Print
$47.93
SKU: BEP-6450
Pieter Bruegel the Elder
Original Size: 27.2 x 42.3 cm
Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, California, USA

Fortitude, 1558 by Bruegel the Elder | Painting Reproduction

Fortitude 1558

Paper Art Print
$47.93
SKU: BEP-6451
Pieter Bruegel the Elder
Original Size: 22.3 x 28.9 cm
Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, California, USA

A Man-of-War near the Coast, with the Fall of Icarus, n.d. by Bruegel the Elder | Painting Reproduction

A Man-of-War near the Coast, with the Fall of Icarus n.d.

Paper Art Print
$47.93
SKU: BEP-6452
Pieter Bruegel the Elder
Original Size: 22.3 x 29 cm
Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, California, USA

Pagus Nemorosus (Village in the Woods), n.d. by Bruegel the Elder | Painting Reproduction

Pagus Nemorosus (Village in the Woods) n.d.

Paper Art Print
$47.93
SKU: BEP-6453
Pieter Bruegel the Elder
Original Size: 32 x 42.7 cm
Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, California, USA

River Landscape with the Fall of Icarus, n.d. by Bruegel the Elder | Painting Reproduction

River Landscape with the Fall of Icarus n.d.

Paper Art Print
$47.93
SKU: BEP-6454
Pieter Bruegel the Elder
Original Size: 27.2 x 33.5 cm
Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, California, USA

Prudence, 1558 by Bruegel the Elder | Painting Reproduction

Prudence 1558

Paper Art Print
$47.93
SKU: BEP-6455
Pieter Bruegel the Elder
Original Size: 22.4 x 29.4 cm
Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, California, USA

Milites Requiescentes, n.d. by Bruegel the Elder | Painting Reproduction

Milites Requiescentes n.d.

Paper Art Print
$47.93
SKU: BEP-6456
Pieter Bruegel the Elder
Original Size: unknown
Boston Museum of Fine Arts, Massachusetts, USA

The Four Seasons: Summer, n.d. by Bruegel the Elder | Painting Reproduction

The Four Seasons: Summer n.d.

Paper Art Print
$47.93
SKU: BEP-6457
Pieter Bruegel the Elder
Original Size: 22.3 x 28.5 cm
Boston Museum of Fine Arts, Massachusetts, USA

Marriage of Mapsus and Nisa, 1570 by Bruegel the Elder | Painting Reproduction

Marriage of Mapsus and Nisa 1570

Paper Art Print
$47.93
SKU: BEP-6458
Pieter Bruegel the Elder
Original Size: 22 x 29 cm
Boston Museum of Fine Arts, Massachusetts, USA

Skaters by St. George's Gate, Antwerp, 1553 by Bruegel the Elder | Painting Reproduction

Skaters by St. George's Gate, Antwerp 1553

Paper Art Print
$47.93
SKU: BEP-6459
Pieter Bruegel the Elder
Original Size: 23.4 x 30 cm
Boston Museum of Fine Arts, Massachusetts, USA

The Temptation of Saint Anthony, c.1550/75 by Bruegel the Elder | Painting Reproduction

The Temptation of Saint Anthony c.1550/75

Oil Painting
$5429
Canvas Print
$86.82
SKU: BEP-6460
Pieter Bruegel the Elder
Original Size: 58.5 x 85.7 cm
National Gallery of Art, Washington, USA

The Painter and the Art Lover, c.1565 by Bruegel the Elder | Painting Reproduction

The Painter and the Art Lover c.1565

Paper Art Print
$47.93
SKU: BEP-6461
Pieter Bruegel the Elder
Original Size: 25 x 21.6 cm
Graphische Sammlung Albertina, Vienna, Austria

Naval Battle in the Gulf of Naples, c.1563 by Bruegel the Elder | Painting Reproduction

Naval Battle in the Gulf of Naples c.1563

Oil Painting
$4836
Canvas Print
$50.33
SKU: BEP-6462
Pieter Bruegel the Elder
Original Size: 39.8 x 69.5 cm
Galleria Doria Pamphilj, Rome, Italy

Naval Battle in the Gulf of Naples (Detail), c.1563 by Bruegel the Elder | Painting Reproduction

Naval Battle in the Gulf of Naples (Detail) c.1563

Canvas Print
$50.33
SKU: BEP-6463
Pieter Bruegel the Elder
Original Size: unknown
Galleria Doria Pamphilj, Rome, Italy

The Triumph of Death, c.1562 by Bruegel the Elder | Painting Reproduction

The Triumph of Death c.1562

Oil Painting
$28024
Canvas Print
$54.64
SKU: BEP-6464
Pieter Bruegel the Elder
Original Size: 117 x 162 cm
Prado Museum, Madrid, Spain

Dulle Griet (Mad Meg), 1564 by Bruegel the Elder | Painting Reproduction

Dulle Griet (Mad Meg) 1564

Oil Painting
$11320
Canvas Print
$91.84
SKU: BEP-6465
Pieter Bruegel the Elder
Original Size: 117 x 162 cm
Museum Mayer van der Berg, Antwerp, Belgium

The Procession to Calvary (Detail), 1564 by Bruegel the Elder | Painting Reproduction

The Procession to Calvary (Detail) 1564

Canvas Print
$56.19
SKU: BEP-6466
Pieter Bruegel the Elder
Original Size: unknown
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna, Austria

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