Pieter Brueghel the Elder

Pieter Brueghel the Elder or Bruegel (c.1525 – September 9, 1569) was a Flemish painter known for his landscapes and peasant scenes. 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. From 1559 he dropped the 'h' from his name and started signing his paintings as Bruegel.

He was an apprentice of Pieter Coecke van Aelst, whose daughter Mayke he later married, and was in 1551 accepted as a master in the painters' guild of Antwerp. He travelled to Italy soon after, and then returned to Antwerp before settling in Brussels permanently 10 years later. He died there on 9 September, 1569.

He was the father of Pieter Brueghel the Younger and Jan Brueghel the Elder who both became painters, but as they were still infants when their father died neither received any training from him.

Bruegel specialized in landscapes populated by peasants, painted in a simpler style than the Italianate art that prevailed at the time. The most obvious influence on his art is the older Dutch master Hieronymus Bosch. He is nicknamed 'Peasant Brueghel' to distinguish him from other members of the Brueghel dynasty, but is also the one generally meant when the context does not make clear which "Brueghel" is being referred to.

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. His winter landscapes of 1565 are corroborative evidence of the severity of winters during the Little ice age.

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There are 45 authenticated surviving paintings, one-third of which are in the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna. A number of others are known to have been lost. A large number of drawings and engravings also still exist.

Landscape with Christ and the Apostles at the Sea of Tiberias, 1553, probably with Maarten de Vos, private collection
bigfishlittlefish.JPG, 1556, Albertina, Vienna
Ass at School, 1556, Kupferstichkabinett Staatliche Museen, Berlin
Parable of the Sower, 1557, Timken Museum of Art, San Diego
Landscape with the Fall of Icarus, c.1558, Musée des Beaux-Arts, Brussels
Netherlandish Proverbs, 1559, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin - Gemäldegalerie, Berlin
The Fight Between Carnival and Lent, 1559, Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna
Naval Battle in the Gulf of Naples, 1560, Galleria Doria-Pamphili, Rome
Portrait of an Old Woman, 1560,
Children's Games, 1560, Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna
Saul (Battle Against The Philistines On The Gilboa), 1562, Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna
Two Small Monkeys, 1562, Staaliche Museen, Gemäldegalerie, Berlin
The Triumph of Death, c. 1562, Museo del Prado, Madrid
The Fall of the Rebel Angels, 1562, Musée des Beaux-Arts, Brussels
Dulle Griet (Mad Meg), c. 1562, Museum Mayer van den Bergh, Antwerp
The Tower of Babel, 1563, Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna
Flight To Egypt, 1563, Courtauld Institute Galleries, London
The "Little" Tower of Babel, c. 1563, Museum Boymans-van Beuningen, Rotterdam
The Death of the Virgin, 1564, Upton House, Banbury, Oxfordshire, UK
The Procession to Calvary, 1564, Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna
The Adoration of the Kings, 1564, The National Gallery, London
The Months. A cycle of 6 or 12 paintings of the months or seasons from the Book of Hours of which five remain:
- DSCN2653-hunters-in-the-snow crop 1400x1000.jpg (Dec.-Jan.), 1565, Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna
- The Gloomy Day (Feb.-Ma.), 1565, Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna
- Hay-Harvest (June-July), 1565, Nelahozeves Castle Museum, north of Prague, Czech Republic
- The Harvesters (Aug.-Sept.), 1565, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
- The Return of the Herd (Oct.-Nov.), 1565, Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna
Brueghel the elder - winter landscape with a bird trap.jpg, 1565, Wiltshire, Wilton House
The Calumny of Apelles, 1565, British Museum, London
DSCN2652-brueghel-massacre rot crop 1400 1000.jpg, c. 1565, Hampton Court, U.K./Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna
The Painter and the Connoisseur, c. 1565, Albertina, Vienna
Preaching Of John The Baptist, 1566, Beaux Arts Museum, Budapest
Census at Bethlehem, 1566, Musée des Beaux-Arts, Brussels
The Wedding Dance, c. 1566, Detroit Institute of Arts, Detroit
Conversion Of Paulus, 1567, Kunsthistorishes Museum, Vienna
The Land of Cockaigne/Land Of Milk And Honey, 1567, Alte Pinakothek, Munich
The Magpie on the Gallows, 1568, Hessisches Landesmuseum, Darmstadt
The Misanthrope, 1568, Museo di Capodimonte, Naples
The Blind Leading the Blind, 1568, Museo Nazionale, Naples
The Peasant Wedding, 1568, Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna
The Peasant Dance, 1568, Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna
The Beggars, 1568, Louvre, Paris
The Peasant and the Nest Robber, 1568, Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna
The Three Soldiers, 1568, Frick Collection, New York City
The Storm at Sea, an unfinished work, probably Bruegel's last painting.

Portrayals in literature

Rucker, R. (2002). As above, so below: A novel of Peter Bruegel. New York: Forge.
Michael Frayn (2000) Headlong, ISBN 0571201474. A novel in which a young art historian discovers the lost painting from The Months cycle.
Gert Hofmann's novella Der Blindensturz (1985) depicts the figures in The Blind Leading the Blind coming to life.
Caryl Churchill (1982) Top Girls. One of the characters in the dreamlike first scene of this play is Dull Gret, the subject of Brughel's 'Dulle Griet' (Mad Meg).
Felix Timmermans (1928). Pieter Bruegel. Novel.
Uderzo depicts a Belgian feast as an almost perfect copy of Peasant Wedding in Asterix in Belgium ^*.
W.H. Auden's "Musee des Beaux Arts"

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