Old Masters

Pieter Bruegel the Elder Between everyday life and allegory

Born: 1525/30, Breugel or Antwerp
Died: 1569, Brussels

Pieter Bruegel the Elder in our online collection

Excellent beginnings

Pieter Bruegel the Elder was probably born in Breugel or Antwerp between 1525 and 1530. He learnt his craft from the Flemish painter Pieter Coecke van Aelst and his wife, the renowned miniature painter Mayken Verhulst. In the beginning, Bruegel was mainly active as a draughtsman and created designs for engravings. Inspired by his role model Hieronymus Bosch, Bruegel also created fantastic, satirical, and moralistic pictorial worlds full of bizarre figures and grotesque scenes, for which he quickly became very popular.

Off to the south! (1552–1554)

At the beginning of the 1550s, Bruegel set off for Italy. His journey initially took him to Rome via France. The journey continued by boat towards Naples and Messina. He then travelled back to Rome, where he worked with his friend Giulio Clovio, a miniature painter. He returned north via the western Alps, presumably also crossing the upper Rhine Valley. Bruegel recorded his impressions on this journey in numerous sketches and drawings, which he would later use in his landscape paintings.

Johannes Wierix Portrait of Pieter Bruegel the Elder, Kupferstich, 203 × 124 mm. In: Dominicus Lampsonius, Pictorum aliquot celebrium Germaniae inferioris effigies, hg. von Hieronymus Cocks Witwe Volcxken Diericx, Antwerpen 1572, Taf. 19. Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum, Inv.-Nr. RP-P-1907-593.

Travel bug – travel blues?

The mere travelling time of the above-mentioned route could take a good year in adverse conditions such as bad weather or accidents, with horse and boat being the main means of transport. Robberies and mudslides also made such journeys an extremely dangerous endeavour. It was best to sign your will before you left!

Today, it would take travellers a good week to complete Bruegel’s route by car, train and boat, while the round trip would probably take two days by plane – excluding rail strikes, flight delays, and car breakdowns!

In good company

He was accompanied on his journey, at least occasionally, by other famous figures such as the cartographer Abraham Ortelius and the sculptor Jacques Jonghelinck. His brother Nicolaes later became one of Bruegel’s greatest patrons, who also commissioned the famous Seasons.

Back to the Netherlands (1554–1563)

After his return from Italy, Bruegel settled in Antwerp in 1554.
At the time, the city was one of the largest trading metropolises and one of the leading art centres in Europe.
Here Bruegel worked with the publisher Hieronymus Cock. Inspired by the impressions of his journey through the Alps, Bruegel created large-format landscape drawings, which were soon published as engravings by Cock. The landscapes enjoyed great popularity among Bruegel’s contemporaries, especially humanistically educated citizens who were very interested in depictions of nature. Bruegel gradually focused more and more on painting. From 1557, he created his first panel pictures, followed shortly thereafter by Children’s Games or The Fight between Carnival and Lent.

At the peak of his career: Brussels

Bruegel moved to Brussels and married the daughter of his teachers Mayken Verhulst and Pieter Coecke van Aelst there in 1563. During this time, he created his most famous masterpieces, such as the Seasons, The Tower of Babel, and the Peasant Wedding, which are also on display at the Kunsthistorisches Museum. Bruegel incorporated his precise observations of nature into his paintings.

In both Brussels and Antwerp, Bruegel worked for influential patrons, including the aforementioned Nicolaes Jonghelinck. In addition, he had contacts in humanist circles, which explains why his works often contain profound allusions to socially relevant topics.

Bruegel continued

Bruegel died in 1569 at the age of about 40. According to one anecdote, on his deathbed he told his wife to burn some of his works so that they would not fall into the wrong hands. This account is a reference to Bruegel’s more socially critical works.
Pieter Bruegel the Elder became the founder of a successful dynasty of painters. Even though his sons were only five and one year old at the time of his death, they followed in their father’s footsteps. His elder son Pieter Brueghel the Younger made a name for himself as his father’s copyist, while his younger son Jan Brueghel the Elder became famous not least for his detailed still lifes.