Pieter Bruegel the Elder Oil Painting Reproductions

About Pieter Bruegel the Elder

Pieter Bruegel the Elder was among the most significant artists of Dutch and Flemish Renaissance painting, a painter and printmaker known for his landscapes and his peasant scenes. He was a pioneer in presenting both types of subject as large paintings, and that was new: the village and the open field became the whole picture instead of the backdrop, and the life of common people went with them. He was born around 1525 or 1530 and died in 1569.

The dated work by Pieter Bruegel the Elder covers the years from 1552 to 1569. The earliest of his three Towers of Babel, a miniature on ivory made while he was in Rome in 1552 or 1553, is lost. The two that survive are on wood panels, one dated 1563 in the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna, the other undated in the Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen in Rotterdam, and they are told apart by the prefixes Great and Little as well as by city. The proverbs panel is dated 1559 and painted on oak. The hunters panel, of 1565, belongs to a series on the different times of the year, five of which still survive, and that large panel is in Vienna too, dated six years before his death.

Series and periods

Pieter Bruegel the Elder worked in groups rather than one-off pictures, so the collection reads best by series and by motif.

• The times of the year: five panels of a series on the different times of the year still survive, and four of them name their months. The hunters carry December and January. Titles here: The Hunters, The Gloomy Day (January), Haymaking (June and July), The Harvesters (July and August), The Return of the Herd (November).
• Village feasts and games: the work he is known for alongside the landscapes, the feasts, the games and the genre scenes of common people, and village life as the whole matter of a picture. Titles here: Peasant Wedding, The Peasant Dance, Children's Games, The Beggars.
• The two towers: the Vienna panel of 1563 and the undated Rotterdam one, the Great and the Little, both painted on wood. Titles here: The Tower of Babel, The Little Tower of Babel.
• Proverbs and single figures: the 1559 panel in which humans and, to a lesser extent, animals and objects give literal illustrations of Dutch-language proverbs and idioms. Many of the smaller panels beside it work the same way, one saying at a time. Titles here: Netherlandish Proverbs, Dulle Griet (Mad Meg), Two Monkeys, The Magpie on the Gallows.
• Bible subjects in a Flemish setting: the stories set down among the same houses, carts and snow as the village pictures. Titles here: Census at Bethlehem, The Adoration of the Kings, Conversion of Saint Paul, Parable of the Sower, The Fall of the Rebel Angels.

Most famous works

These are the titles by Pieter Bruegel the Elder that people open most in this collection, ordered by the traffic each one draws and by what actually sells. Each one opens its own page, where you choose the size and decide on a frame.

• Hunters in the Snow: a 1565 painting on wood, also known as The Return of the Hunters, and a Northern Renaissance piece from the series on the times of the year. The scene is set in the depths of winter, in December and January, and the panel is in the collection of the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna
• The Tower of Babel: the Vienna panel, dated 1563, painted on wood and the one that carries the prefix Great. Two versions survive, and a third, a miniature on ivory made in Rome in 1552 or 1553, is lost
• The Little Tower of Babel: the other surviving version, in the Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen in Rotterdam, undated and widely believed to have been painted some time after the Vienna picture
• Netherlandish Proverbs: a 1559 panel on oak in which humans and, to a lesser extent, animals and objects give literal illustrations of Dutch-language proverbs and idioms
• Landscape with the Fall of Icarus: oil on canvas measuring 73.5 by 112 centimetres, now in the Oldmasters Museum in Brussels. Long taken for his own hand, it is now usually read as a good early copy by an unknown artist of a lost original of about 1558, and the museum holds that the composition can be said with certainty to be his
• Peasant Wedding: the wedding feast in a barn, the village subject matter taken to the size of a history picture
• The Peasant Dance: the same crowd on its feet outside, the piper at the edge of the frame
• Children's Games: a village square filled with children, one game after another across the whole panel
• The Harvesters (July and August): the wheat harvest, the summer panel of the series on the times of the year
• The Gloomy Day (January): the grey end of the cold season in the same group, the village at work in the wet
• Haymaking (June and July): hay carried in under a high sky, another surviving panel of the year
• The Return of the Herd (November): cattle driven home in late autumn, the November panel of the group
• Winter Landscape with Skaters and a Bird Trap: skaters out on the frozen river and a trap propped on the bank behind them
• Census at Bethlehem: the Bible census set in a village under snow, a family arriving among the crowd and the Flemish present standing in for the story
• The Adoration of the Kings: the kings at the stable, the figures pressed close to the front of the panel
• Conversion of Saint Paul: Saint Paul thrown down on a mountain road while the column of soldiers keeps climbing
• The Suicide of Saul: the king dead on the field with the battle still running behind him
• Parable of the Sower: the parable set inside a wide river view, the sower small at the front
• The Fall of the Rebel Angels: the rebel angels driven out, the panel packed with strange bodies
• The Magpie on the Gallows: a gallows on a hillside, a bird on the beam and dancers beside it
• Dulle Griet (Mad Meg): the figure striding in armour past the mouth of hell
• Two Monkeys: two chained monkeys on a sill with the harbour behind them, one of his smallest panels
• The Storm at Sea: ships in a squall, the sea and the sky taking up almost everything
• Landscape with Christ Appearing to the Apostles: the Sea of Tiberias as a wide view, with the figures kept small inside it

Browse by subject

Bruegel's subjects run through other collections of ours, and each one is a different door into the same painter.

• Northern Renaissance paintings: 1,106 works, Bruegel was among the most significant artists of Dutch and Flemish Renaissance painting, and the 1565 hunters panel is described as a Northern Renaissance piece.
• Landscape paintings: 8,004 canvases, the genre in which the main subject is a wide view of natural scenery, mountains, valleys, rivers, trees and forests, with sky almost always in the view and weather often an element of the composition. The landscapes he was first to hand a whole panel to sit here.
• Winter paintings: 139 titles, The hunters, the skaters and the bird trap, the pictures set in December and January.
• Religious paintings: 3,084 pieces, the visual representation of religious ideas and their relationship with humans, with sacred art the part of it made for worship and religious practice. The census, the adoration, the sower and the rebel angels belong here.
• Mythology paintings: 3,360 paintings, The Icarus canvas takes its fall from the old story, and the museum in Brussels holds the composition to be his.
• The 100 most famous paintings of all time: 5 canvases by Bruegel sit on this list, our reading of the best known paintings in art history, the two towers among them.

The full list of painters we reproduce in oil is on the artist index.

How each reproduction is painted

Nothing here is stock. When you order, an artist paints that title in oil on canvas in the size you picked, layer by layer, and you see a photograph of the finished painting and approve it before it leaves the studio. Fine detail takes time, so a panel packed with figures is slower than an open sky, and nothing leaves the studio before you have seen it. Seven sizes are available and the frame is optional, so the same picture can be a small study by a desk or the one thing on a wall. Shipping is free worldwide and returns stay open for 90 days.

Frequently asked questions

Which Bruegel painting is the most famous?

The hunters panel and The Tower of Babel are the two people open most here, and five titles by Pieter Bruegel the Elder sit on our list of the 100 most famous pictures in art history, with Netherlandish Proverbs, Peasant Wedding and the Icarus canvas.

Where are the originals?

In museums. The Hunters in the Snow and the 1563 Tower of Babel are in the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna, the Little Tower is in the Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen in Rotterdam, and the Icarus canvas is in the Oldmasters Museum in Brussels. That is the practical reason hand-painted copies exist.

Is the Icarus canvas really by Bruegel?

Not certainly. After technical examinations in 1996 the attribution of the Brussels picture is regarded as very doubtful, and it is usually seen as a good early copy of a lost original of about 1558, though the museum says the composition is his. A second version, on wood, is in the Museum van Buuren, also in Brussels.

Did Bruegel paint the seasons?

He painted a series on the different times of the year, and five of those panels still survive. Four of them name their months in the title, and the fifth is the one set in December and January.

Do you sell Bruegel prints?

No. He worked as a painter and printmaker, but we sell neither prints of the engravings nor prints of the panels. Each item here is a new painting in oil on canvas, made to order, and never a print.

Are these original Pieter Bruegel the Elder paintings?

No. Each one is a new painting, made by hand in oil on canvas after Bruegel's composition. It is a reproduction, not a print, and not the original canvas.

What sizes and frames can I order?

Every Bruegel reproduction here comes in seven sizes, with an optional frame. You see a photo of the finished oil painting and approve it before it ships, worldwide shipping is free, and returns stay open for 90 days.