Painter
Born: Eindhoven rond 1525
Died: Brussel 5/09/1569

Pieter Breughel’s artistic carreer was rather short. About fifty of his paintings are famous. E.g. ‘ De toren van Babel’, ‘De spreekwoorden’ , ‘De kinderspelen’.

1565 was his best year. He then painted his famous landscapes with top of the bill

‘De twaalf maanden’ are six big panels and each panel represents  two months of the year. Five of them have been preserved: ‘Jagers in de sneeuw’ (December and January), ‘De duistere dag’ (February and March), Hooioogst (June and July), ‘De oogst’ (August and September) and ‘De terugkeer van de kudde’ (October and November). These five masterpieces belong to the Low Countries’ best works concerning the art of landscape painting.

After this biblical works followed: e.g.’De volkstelling te Betlehem’ (1566), ‘De prediking van St.-Jan’ (1566-1567) and ‘De bekering van Paulus’ (1567).

The paintings ‘Boerenbruiloft’ (1565-1566) and ‘De dansende boeren’ (1565-1566) show us how Breughel moved towards compositions with figures. We also find this back in works as ‘Luilekkerland’ (1567), ‘De misantroop’ (1568), ‘De kreupelen’ (1568, Louvre, Paris) and in the imposing ‘De parable van de blinden’(1568).  They all witness the mature and warm human being who cares for the people’s fate, but also expose man’s shortcomings. Other remarkable panels from the last years of Breugel’s life are ‘De storm’ (1567) and ‘Ekster op de galg’ (1568)

Breugel shows in his work the farmers and the land on which they try to build their life.