BRUEGEL Pieter

‘il Vecchio’ (Breda 1525 ca. – Brussels 1569)

Painter, Dutch draftsman and engraver. The life of this extraordinary son of Flanders remains largely wrapped in mystery today. Probably born in a village around Breda, he was the initiator of one of the main dynasties of Flemish painters.

In Antwerp, he has been a pupil of painter Pieter Coecke van Aelst, of whom he later married the daughter Mayke. In 1551 he became a member of the guild’s corporation (Guild of S. Luke) in Antwerp. In 1552 he travelled to Italy, but this did not have a particular influence on the subjects and the style of his works.

He remained faithful to the realistic view of the old Flemish people and his numerous prints were inspired to Flemish folklore, evoking popular scenes, illustrating proverbs and recalling H. Bosch’s fantastic imagination.

Once he returned to Flanders in 1554, he began to work for the “Aux quatre vents” by Hieronymus Cock, providing him and  other engravers active in his workshop the drawings specially realized for allegorical and didactic-moral prints influenced by Bosch’s art. Around 1563 he moved to Brussels where he remained for the rest of his life.
His sons, Pieter Bruegel ‘the Younger’ and Jan Bruegel ‘of the Velvets’, were both painters, but since they were still too young when his father disappeared, they did not have the opportunity to learn from him.