Pieter Brugel,
The Elder

BIOGRAPHY

1525 - 1569

Nationality:            Flemish
Style/Movement:    Renaissance
Best Known For:    Painting images of everyday people doing everyday things.

• Children's Games, 1560
• The Peasant Wedding, 1567

Pieter Bruegel was a Flemish painter who captured everyday people doing everyday things. He painted peasants at work and people at play. He also created magnificent illustrations of proverbs and was not above poking a little fun - he is considered to have been the most important satirists in the Netherlands. Many also say that he was the most important Northern painter of the mid-16th century.

Pieter Bruegel was a highly educated man, but because he painted images of peasants at work, he was saddled with the nicknames - "Peasant Bruegel" and "Farmer Bruegel".

Pieter Bruegel II (1564-1638) was the first son of Pieter Bruegel the Elder. He was known as "Pieter Brueghel the Younger" and "Hell Bruegel" and he imitated (read: copied) his father's work with great regularity.

Jan Bruegel the Elder (1568-1625) was the second son of Pieter Bruegel the Elder. He was known as "Flower Bruegel" and "Velvet Bruegel". He was a talented, well respected - and subsequently - financially successful artist.

Three of Pieter Bruegel the Elder's grandsons were painters: Peter III (1589-1634) was the son of Pieter the Younger while Ambrosius (1617-1675) and Jan the Younger (1601-1678) were the sons of Jan Bruegel the Elder. Confused? Get ready for more ... Five sons of Jan Bruegel the Younger became artists as well. They were: Abraham, Ferdinand, Filips, Jan Peter and Jan Baptist.

None of the above Bruegel's ever reached the artistic stature of Pieter Bruegel the Elder.