Pieter Bruegel the Elder

Pieter Bruegel the Elder was the most important Netherlandish painter of the 16th century. As one of the first artists to focus on non-religious subject matter, his pictures of ordinary people engaged in everyday activities would greatly influence the later Dutch Golden Age and all subsequent realist schools of painting. Having settled in Antwerp in 1555, he initially produced prints in the style of his famous predecessor, Hieronymus Bosch. Over time, his emphasis shifted to vivid, humorous and sometimes grotesque paintings of village life. The scenes were full of boisterous peasants caught in the act of farming, gossiping, celebrating and getting married. His most famous painting, Hunters in the Snow, was from a large series called The Months. Despite the tag of “Peasant Bruegel”, he was in fact part of the sophisticated world of Dutch humanists. He also spawned an entire family industry of painters – the most well known of which was his eldest son, Brueghel the Younger.