Biography
Pieter Bruegel was a Flemish painter, draughtsman, and printmaker, and one of the most important artistic figures of the sixteenth century. He is also known as “Peasant Bruegel” because of his depictions of the daily life of peasants. Neither the exact place nor the date of his birth is known, although it is believed that he was born near the city of Breda, in the present-day Netherlands, around 1525. He studied painting in Antwerp under Pieter Coecke van Aelst. The first recorded reference to him as a painter dates from 1551, when his name appeared in the register of the city’s Guild of Saint Luke. Between 1552 and 1553, he travelled to Italy, and in 1555 he was living and working in Rome. He later returned to Antwerp, and in 1563 he married Mayken Coecke, the daughter of his former teacher. The couple then moved to Brussels. His wife was also an artist, specializing in watercolours on linen, and she had a profound influence on his work. Bruegel created many of his greatest paintings after their marriage.During Bruegel’s lifetime, the Low Countries were under Spanish rule, and their inhabitants were struggling for independence. The population also suffered because of the conflict between Spain and France from 1556 to 1559. Bruegel’s works often possess strong social and political dimensions. He brought art down from heaven to earth, distancing himself from complete dependence on religion and turning his attention to the lives, customs, hardships, and struggles of ordinary people.
Bruegel had two sons, both of whom also became painters. He is therefore often referred to as Pieter Bruegel the Elder, in order to distinguish him from his son Pieter Brueghel the Younger. He died on 9 September 1569. Shortly before his death, he is said to have asked his wife to destroy all the drawings in which he had criticized and satirized the Spanish administration, fearing that they might cause trouble for his family.