Pieter Bruegel the Elder
Pioneer of landscapes and peasant scenes in Dutch and Flemish Renaissance painting.
Pieter Bruegel the Elder (c. 1525–1530 – 9 September 1569) was among the most significant artists of Dutch and Flemish Renaissance painting, a painter and printmaker known for his landscapes and peasant scenes. He was a pioneer in presenting both types of subject as large paintings. His work proved a formative influence on later Dutch Golden Age painting, largely because he was one of the first generation of artists for whom religious subjects were no longer the natural focus of painting. Notably, he painted no portraits, which were otherwise a mainstay of Netherlandish art. After training and traveling to Italy, he settled in Antwerp in 1555, where he worked primarily as a prolific designer of prints for the leading publisher of the day. Around the end of the 1550s, he shifted to painting as his main medium, and all his famous works date from the following decade before his early death. His birth date is undocumented but inferred from his 1551 entry into the Antwerp painters’ guild, which typically occurred between ages twenty and twenty-five. Early sources disagree on his birthplace, with one citing Breda and another a nearby village, though modern scholarship emphasizes his urban, highly educated background and his connections with humanist circles. He was a pupil of Pieter Coecke van Aelst. After becoming a free master in 1551, he traveled to Italy, reaching as far as Reggio Calabria and Rome, where he met the miniaturist Giulio Clovio. Returning to Antwerp by 1555, he produced over forty print designs for Hieronymus Cock before making painting his main focus. In the 20th and 21st centuries, his works have inspired literary and cinematic artists, including W. H. Auden, whose poem references *Landscape with the Fall of Icarus*, and directors Andrei Tarkovsky and Lars von Trier, who incorporated his paintings into their films.
- born
- c. 1525–1530, likely Breda or a nearby village
- died
- 9 September 1569, Brussels
- field
- Painting, printmaking
- nationality
- Dutch and Flemish
- known_for
- Landscapes, peasant scenes (genre painting)
Lore & Background
Bruegel's birth date is not documented but inferred from his entry into the Antwerp painters' guild in 1551, giving a range of 1525–1530. His master was Pieter Coecke van Aelst. The two main early sources for his biography are Lodovico Guicciardini's account (1567) and Karel van Mander's Schilder-boeck (1604). Guicciardini recorded he was born in Breda; van Mander specified a village near Breda called 'Brueghel,' which does not fit any known place. Nothing is known of his family background. Scholars now emphasize the intellectual content of his work and place his childhood in Breda itself, though he likely did not master Latin. He trained under Pieter Coecke between 1545 and 1550, and before that worked in Mechelen. He became a free master in the Guild of Saint Luke of Antwerp in 1551, then traveled to Italy, visiting Rome and Reggio Calabria, and possibly Sicily. He returned to Antwerp by 1555, working mainly as a designer of prints for Hieronymus Cock. From 1559, he dropped the 'h' from his name and signed his paintings as Bruegel. He married Mayken Coecke in 1563 and moved to Brussels, where he lived until his death. He had two sons, Pieter Brueghel the Younger and Jan Brueghel the Elder, and a daughter about whom nothing is known. He died in Brussels on 9 September 1569 and was buried in the Kapellekerk.
Reader's Guide
Bruegel was a formative influence on Dutch Golden Age painting and later painting in general. He painted no portraits. After his training and travels to Italy, he returned in 1555 to settle in Antwerp, working mainly as a prolific designer of prints. At the end of the 1550s, he made painting his main medium, and all his famous paintings come from the following period of little more than a decade before his early death. His painting Landscape with the Fall of Icarus, now thought only to survive in copies, is the subject of the final lines of the 1938 poem 'Musée des Beaux Arts' by W. H. Auden. Russian film director Andrei Tarkovsky refers to Bruegel's paintings in his films Solaris (1972) and Mirror (1975). Director Lars von Trier uses Bruegel's paintings in his film Melancholia (2011).
Did You Know?
- Bruegel's birth date is not documented but inferred from his entry into the Antwerp painters' guild in 1551.
- He dropped the 'h' from his name around 1559, signing his paintings as Bruegel.
- His painting Landscape with the Fall of Icarus is now thought only to survive in copies.
- He had two sons who became well-known painters: Pieter Brueghel the Younger and Jan Brueghel the Elder.
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