The Bagpipe Player

c. 1562

Pieter Bruegel the Elder

Artist, Netherlandish, c. 1525/1530 - 1569

Drawn with delicate lines in brown ink on vertically oriented, dark tan-colored paper, a man playing a bagpipe sits in a stool, which he tips to one side. The man has a round face with oversized, puffed cheeks. His eyes are squinted shut, and his features are pressed into the middle of his face. He has wispy, chin-length hair and wears a shallow, floppy cap. He blows hard into the mouthpiece of the bagpipe, which he holds between both arms as he fingers the recorder-like chanter. The man wears a baggy-sleeved jacket over tight-fitting pants and slippers. His knees are splayed wide, and a prominent codpiece is framed by the jacket’s quarters, the short front flaps. The three-legged stool has a triangular seat. The man tips the stool up on two legs, angled to our left. The paper is darkened in some areas and chipped around the edges. The artist signed the drawing near the lower left corner, “P. Bréugel f.”

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Artwork overview

  • Medium

    pen and brown ink, with some incised lines, on laid paper; laid down

  • Credit Line

    Woodner Collection, Gift of Dian Woodner

  • Dimensions

    sheet: 20.6 × 14.6 cm (8 1/8 × 5 3/4 in.)

  • Accession

    2016.127.2

Artwork history & notes

Provenance

(Sale, Paris, Hôtel Drouot, 20 May 1966, no. 144); purchased by Ian Woodner, New York, 1966; by inheritance to his daughters, Dian and Andrea Woodner, New York, 1990; by distribution to Dian Woodner; gift to NGA, 2016.

Associated Names

Exhibition History

1971

  • Woodner Collection I: A Selection of Old Master Drawings before 1700, William H. Schab Gallery, New York, Los Angeles County Museum, and Indianapolis Museum of Art, 1971-72, no. 61.

1976

  • Old Master Drawings from American Collections, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, 1976, no. 210 (cat. by Ebria Feinblatt).

1983

  • Master Drawings from the Woodner Collection. J. Paul Getty Museum, Malibu, Kimbell Art Museum, Dallas, and National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1983-84, no. 46 (cat. by George Goldner)

1986

  • Dibujos de los siglos XIV al XX: Colección Woodner, Museo del Prado, Madrid, 1986-87, no. 81.

  • Meisterzeichnungen aus Sechs Jahrhunderten: Die Sammlung Ian Woodner, Haus der Kunst, Munich, and Albertina, Vienna, 1986, no. 68.

1990

  • Master Drawings from the Woodner Collection, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1990, no. 84.

1995

  • The Touch of the Artist: Master Drawings from the Woodner Collections, National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1995-1996, no. 55 (entry by Hans Mielke).

2001

  • Pieter Bruegel the Elder: Drawings and Prints, Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam; The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 2001, no. 98, repro.

2006

  • Master Drawings from the Woodner Collections, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 2006 - 2007.

2017

  • The Woodner Collections: Master Drawings from Seven Centuries, NGA, 2017.

2018

  • Breugel: The Master's Hand, Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna, 2018-2019, no. 78.

Bibliography

1969

  • De Tolnay, Charles. "A Contribution to Pieter Bruegel the Elder as Draughtsman." Miscellanea I. Q. van Regteren Altena. Amsterdam, 1969: 62-63, 279, figs. 10-11.

1974

  • Haverkamp-Begemann, Egbert. "Dutch and Flemish Figure Drawings from the Collection of Harry G. Sperling." Master Drawings 12, no. 1 (Spring 1974): 34, 37 note 1.

1975

  • Pieter Bruegel d. Ä. als Zeichner. Exh. cat. Kupferstichkabinett, Berlin, 1975: 89, under no. 103 (as a workshop copyist).

1977

  • Gaigneron, Axelle de. "Ian Woodner, amateur américain de réputation mondiale, commente quelques oeuvres majeures de sa collection." Connaissance des Arts 310 (December 1977): 102.

1983

  • Matteson, Lynn R. "Old Master Drawings from the Woodner Collection." Pantheon. XLI (1983): 386.

1986

  • Hand, John O., et al. The Age of Bruegel: Netherlandish Drawings of the Sixteenth Century. Exh. cat. National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. and Pierpont Morgan Library, New York, 1986-87: 104, under no. 30 (entry by John Hand).

1996

  • Mielke, Hans. Pieter Bruegel, Die Zeichnungen. Turnhout, 1996: 63-64, 181, no. 58 (repro.).

2006

  • Gibson, Walter S. Pieter Bruegel and the Art of Laughter. Berkeley and Los Angeles, CA, 2006: 90-91, fig. 53.

2017

  • Grasselli, Margaret Morgan. "Pieter Bruegel the Elder, The Bagpipe Player." National Gallery of Art Bulletin no. 56 (Spring 2017): 26.

Inscriptions

by later hand, lower left in pen and brown ink: P. Bréugel f

Wikidata ID

Q64619646

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