"Pieter Brueghel, also known as Bruegel or Breughel, was born between 1520 and 1530 in an outstanding family of Flemish genre and landscape painters. The foremost, Pieter Brueghel, the Elder, called Peasant Brueghel, studied in Antwerp with his future father-in-law, Pieter Coeck van Aelst, but was influenced primarily by Bosch. One of the forerunners of Northern distinction in genre depictio...see more »n, Brueghel has never been surpassed in his joysome, rural scenes of village feasts and other peasant merry-making. His work possesses the simplicity of the Renaissance Italians. In 1551 he became a member of the Antwerp Guild. Brueghel visited Italy in the early 1550s. He remained close, however, to the Flemish tradition and employed his native powers of minute observation in depicting the whole living world of field and forest and of sturdy peasants at work and play. He was, himself, a learned city dweller and friend of humanists. His paintings of genre subjects have allegorical or moralizing significance. In his tremendous range of invention, Brueghel approached Bosch in creating nightmarish fantasies in such works as "The Fall of the Rebel Angels." He also painted cheerful, acutely perceived scenes of daily life, as "Peasant Wedding" for which he is best known. In the "Fall of Icarus" - there are versions in Brussels and New York - his only mythological subject, the title character is reduced to a tiny figure barely noticeable in a large genre scene. Brueghel's range of subjects includes religious histories - "Numbering at Bethlehem," "Way to Calvary" with figures clothed in contemporary Flemish dress. Also parables such as "The Sower" and "The Blind Leading the Blind" or genre scenes such as "Children's Games" or "Peasant Dance." He did landscapes showing the activities of the months such as "Harvesters" in the Metropolitan Museum. A skilled draftsman and etcher, he used a delicate line to define his figures. His people are stubby in proportion, but lively and solid. His color is remarkably sensitive, as is his feeling for landscape. His compositions are often based on diagonal lines and S-curves, creating gentle rhythms and allowing planes of landscape to unfold into the distance."« see less
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"As chairman of many fund raising events for Trout Unlimited and the Upper Manistee River Association, I’ve used many of ArtPassions.com's products and services for framing items for our auctions. I have found Arnie’s staff to be extremely accommodating, polite and knowledgeable and the pricing to be very favorable."