- Pieter Bruegel was born in 1525 in Breda, Netherlands. He was an actor, known for The Pit and the Pendulum (1991), Human Nature: Creating It Comes at Night (2017) and Five Revolutionary Painters (1959). He died on September 9, 1569 in Brussels, Southern Netherlands [now Belgium].
- Bruegel only etched one plate himself, The Rabbit Hunt, but designed some forty prints, both engravings and etchings, mostly for the Hieronymus Cock publishing house.
- There are about forty generally accepted surviving paintings, twelve of which are in the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna. A number of others are known to have been lost, including what, according to van Mander, Bruegel himself thought his best work, "a picture in which Truth triumphs".
- From 1555 until 1563, Bruegel lived in Antwerp, then the publishing centre of northern Europe, mainly working as a designer of over forty prints for Hieronymus Cock, though his dated paintings begin in 1557.
- In 1551 Bruegel became a free master in the Guild of Saint Luke of Antwerp.
- Among his greatest successes were a series of allegories, among several designs adopting many of the very individual mannerisms of his compatriot Hieronymus Bosch: The Seven Deadly Sins and The Virtues. The sinners are grotesque and unidentifiable while the allegories of virtue often wear odd headgear. That imitations of Bosch sold well is demonstrated by his drawing Big Fish Eat Little Fish (now Albertina), which Bruegel signed but Hieronymus Cock shamelessly attributed to Bosch in the print version.
Contribute to this page
Suggest an edit or add missing content