(Dutch pronunciation:c. 1525 - 9 September 1569) was a Flemish Renaissance painter and printmaker known for his landscapes and peasant scenes (Genre Painting). He is sometimes referred to as "Peasant Bruegel" to distinguish him from other members of the Brueghel dynasty, but is also the one generally meant when the context does not make clear which "Bruegel" is being referred to. From 1559 he dropped the 'h' from his name and started signing his paintings as Bruegel. There are records that he was born in Breda, Netherlands, but it is uncertain whether the Dutch town of Breda or the Belgian town of Bree, called Breda in Latin, is meant. He was an apprentice of Pieter Coecke van Aelst, whose daughter Mayken he later married. He spent some time in France and Italy, and then went to Antwerp, where in 1551 he was accepted as a master in the painter's guild. He traveled to Italy soon after, and then returned to Antwerp before settling in Brussels permanently 10 years later. He received the nickname 'Peasant Bruegel' or 'Bruegel the Peasant' for his alleged practice of dressing up like a peasant in order to mingle at weddings and other celebrations, thereby gaining inspiration and authentic details for his genre paintings. He died in Brussels on 9 September 1569 and was buried in the Kapellekerk. He was the father of Pieter Brueghel the Younger and Jan Brueghel the Elder. Both became painters, but as they were very young children when their father died, it is believed neither received any training from him.   Related Paintings of Pieter Bruegel the Elder :. | The Tower of Babel | Pieter Bruegel The Children's games | Children's Games | Children's Games | The Peasant Dance |
Related Artists:
Alson Skinner Clark
1876-1949
Jan van Beers
(22 February 1821 - 14 November 1888) was Flemish poet born in Antwerp. He is usually referred to as "van Beers the elder" to distinguish him from his son, Jan van Beers, the painter. Van Beers was essentially a Netherlander, though politically a Belgian, expressing his thoughts in the same language as any North Netherland writer. In fact, the poems of Jan van Beers are perhaps more popular in the Netherlands than in Belgium, and of many of them there exist more editions printed in the Netherlands than in his political fatherland. Van Beers started life as a teacher of Dutch language and literature, first at Mechelen, then at Lier, and in 1860 was appointed a professor of both at the Athenaeum (high school) in Antwerp, where he had also been a sub-librarian in the communal library. Van Beers as a teacher was early in the field, with Hendrik Conscience, Willems and others, when the Flemish movement began. He composed a Dutch grammar (1852), which, in enlarged editions, still holds the field, and a volume of selections from Dutch authors, both books being so much appreciated that the Belgian government made them text-books in the public schools. Van Beers's historical poems, the principal of which is, perhaps, Jakob Van Maerlant (Amsterdam, 1860), helped the Flemish revival in Belgium as powerfully as his school-books. He is best known, however, as the writer of ballads and songs. Jongelingsdroomen ("A Young Man's Dreams") first appeared at Antwerp and Amsterdam in 1853. These poems were followed by Levensbeelden ("Life Figures or Pictures," Amsterdam, 1858) and by Gevoel en Leven ("Feeling Living," Amsterdam, 1869). His Rijzende Blaren ("Rising Leaves") first made its appearance at Ghent and Rotterdam in 1883.
Osias Beert
1580-1624 Flemish Osias Beert Galleries Flemish painter. In 1596 he went to study with Andries van Baseroo and in 1602 became a master in the Antwerp Guild of St Luke; these two dates suggest his probable date of birth. Beert married Marguerite Ykens on 8 January 1606. Contemporary documents describe him as a cork merchant. The esteem enjoyed by Beert is indicated by the large number of pupils he had, including, in 1610, Frans van der Borch; in 1615, Frans Ykens; in 1616, Paulus Pontius; and, in 1618, Jan Willemssen. Beerts son, Osias Beert the younger (1622-78), was also a painter and became a master in 1645.