Pieter Brueghel the Younger

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Pieter Brueghel the Younger
(Portrait of Anthony van Dyck )

Pieter Brueghel the Younger (also Breughel or Breugel ; * between May 23 and October 10, 1564 in Brussels ; † between March and April 1638 in Antwerp ), known as de Helse Brueghel or Höllenbrueghel , was a Brabant genre painter . He worked during the transition from the late Renaissance to the early Baroque .

Life

The future artist was born as the son of the painter Pieter Bruegel the Elder (1525–1569) and his wife Mayken, a daughter of Pieter Coecke van Aelst , in the house at Hoogstraat 132 in Brussels' Marollenviertel, which still exists today. There he spent his childhood together with the younger brother Jan Brueghel the elder, later named Samtbrueghel , and a sister named Marie. At the age of five the boy lost his father and, contrary to popular opinion, could not have been trained by him. According to Karel van Mander , the young Brueghel was apprenticed to the landscape painter Gillis van Coninxloo (1544–1607) in Antwerp , where his presence has been documented since 1578 .

In 1585 he is listed as an independent master in the books of the Guild of Luke in Antwerp. He had a larger studio in Antwerp , in which his brother Jan also worked for a time and, according to the guild books, nine assistants were employed from 1588 to 1626 .

Pieter Brueghel the Younger died in 1638 at the age of 73. In the same year, his wife Elisabeth Goddelet, whom he married on November 5, 1588, also died. The latter bore him seven children, including the later painter Pieter III. Brueghel .

plant

The nickname Höllenbrueghel given to the painter is based on an erroneous attribution made in earlier times of the small-format scenes of hell that were created in the first years of the 17th century and are now assigned to the work of his brother Jan (Samtbrueghel).

Pieter Bruegel the Elder
The Peasant Wedding (approx. 1568)
Vienna, Kunsthistorisches Museum
Pieter Brueghel the Younger
after Pieter Bruegel the Elder:
The Peasant Wedding (1630)
Tokyo Fuji Art Museum
Pieter Brueghel the Younger
after Pieter Bruegel the Elder:
The Census at Bethlehem
Lille, Palais des Beaux-Arts

The work of Pieter Brueghel the Younger is divided into

  • Painting based on existing or known but lost originals by Pieter Bruegel the Elder (by far the largest part of the work),
  • Painting in the manner of Pieter Bruegel the Elder, for which an original of the latter could not be traced,
  • some of his own compositions ascribed to him.

In 1604, Van Mander described the then forty-year-old painter as a good copyist of his father's works. It is thanks to this extensive and considerable work, which in the first half of his creative period was carried out almost in series, that the content and composition of various works by Pieter Bruegel the Elder have been passed on. It covers a large part of the work; however, the large landscape compositions of the five monthly pictures are missing . In addition, Pieter the Younger also converted his father's drawings and engravings into oil paintings. These copies or more or less different imitations from the studio of Pieter Brueghel the Younger corresponded to the strong demand for the works of Pieters the Elder. 13 copies of the Bethlehem census are known, several of the sermon of John the Baptist , more of the Dutch proverbs , the peasant wedding , etc. This remains largely unexplained, including on the occasion of the exhibition "L'Entreprise Brueghel" (2002) in the Brussels Royal Museum for Ancient art raised the question of what part Pieter the Younger actually had in the production within his studio and according to which models his father's works, which were in demand and were no longer in the family's possession, were copied. Numerous museums in many countries keep paintings from the Antwerp studio.

For several paintings executed in the manner of Pieter the Elder - such as the Adoration of the Magi in the Snow (36 variants, including six dated and signed), in which more diverse deviations can be found, or the peasant advocates - a corresponding work by the father, that could have served as a template, could not be tracked down.

Selection of works

  • ???: The census of Bethlehem ( De volkstelling te Bethlehem ), after Pieter Brueghel the Elder, Lille , Palais des Beaux-Arts
  • ???: The Dutch Proverbs , after Pieter Brueghel the Elder, Antwerp, Rockox House
  • 1559: The dispute between carnival and Lent , according to Pieter Bruegel the Elder, Vienna , Kunsthistorisches Museum
  • 1608: Rural scene , Turin , Galleria Sabauda
  • 1616: The Good Shepherd , Brussels
  • ???: The Adoration of the Magi in the Snow ( L'Adoration des mages sous la neige ), Prague , National Gallery
  • 1621: The peasant lawyer , Ghent , Museum of Fine Arts
  • ???: The Alchemist , oil on wood, 68.8 × 96 cm, Lempertz Auction House, 2010

literature

Web links

Commons : Pieter Brueghel the Younger  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Footnotes

  1. ↑ See: On the spelling of the name Brueghel
  2. ↑ Karel van Mander: Het Schilder-Boeck (Book of Painters), 1604.
  3. ↑ according to other sources in 1584
  4. ↑ See: Dictionnaire de la peinture flamande et hollandaise du Moyen Âge à nos jours. Larousse, Paris 1989, ISBN 2-03-740015-2 .
  5. ^ Françoise Bernardi: L'Entreprise Brueghel ou la peinture de père en fils. In: Mémoires , lettre mensuelle, April 2002.
personal data
SURNAME Brueghel, Pieter the Younger
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Breughel, Pieter the Younger; Breugel, Pieter the Younger; de Helse Brueghel (assigned name); Höllenbrueghel (assigned name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Flemish painter
DATE OF BIRTH between May 23, 1564 and October 10, 1564
PLACE OF BIRTH Brussels
DATE OF DEATH between March 1638 and April 1638
Place of death Antwerp