Landscape with the Penitence of Saint Jerome

1553

Pieter Bruegel the Elder

Associated Names
Pieter Bruegel the Elder

Artist, Netherlandish, c. 1525/1530 - 1569

This drawing shows a vast landscape with hills dotted with trees, grazing animals, and small buildings. In the distance on the right is a walled collection of buildings that may be a town or city. The vague outlines of people walk on a path in front of the wall. Closer to us, on the left, is a tall tree. At its base seems to be a kneeling man with a long beard. He is drawn with loose lines, and few details are visible. Next to him is an animal lying on the ground that looks like a lion, or perhaps a dog. The color palette is monochromatic, with dark brown ink on beige paper.

Media Options

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Artwork overview

  • Medium

    pen and brown ink on laid paper

  • Credit Line

    Ailsa Mellon Bruce Fund

  • Dimensions

    Overall: 23.2 x 33.6 cm (9 1/8 x 13 1/4 in.)
    support: 33.1 x 42 cm (13 1/16 x 16 9/16 in.)

  • Accession Number

    1972.47.1

  • Catalogue Raisonné

    Munz 1961, no. 22

Artwork history & notes

Provenance

Friedrich Wilhelm Klever [1846 - 1930], Cologne? (his sale, Lempertz, Cologne, 18-19 January 1892, no. 11). Prince of Liechtenstein; Dr. Felix Somary, Zurich; (William H. Schab, New York); purchased 1972 by NGA.

Associated Names

Exhibition History

1974

  • NGA Recent Acquisitions 1974, no. 39.

1978

  • Master Drawings from the Collection of the National Gallery of Art and Promised Gifts, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1978, p. 29.

1988

  • The Pastoral Landscape: The Legacy of Venice, The National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1988-1989, no. 47, fig. 103.

1999

  • Renaissance Venice and the North: Crosscurrents in the Time of Bellini, Dürer, and Titian, Palazzo Grassi, Venice, 1999-2000, no. 110, repro.

2001

  • Pieter Bruegel the Elder: Drawings and Prints, Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam; The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 2001, no. 11, repro.

2018

  • Bruegel: The Hand of the Master, Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna, 2018-2019, no. 4.

Bibliography

1961

  • Munz, Ludwig. Pieter Bruegel, The Drawings. Complete ed. Translated from the German by Luke Hermann. Greenwich, CT: Phaidon Publishers; distributed by New York Graphic Society, 1961.

1984

  • Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington. Rev. ed. New York, 1984: 661, no. 1043, color repro.

Inscriptions

lower left: [1]553; lower center: BRUEGEL; in later hand, lower center on mount: P.Brueghel, d A; vertical along left edge verso: L.NK; lower right verso: Pierre Breughel, Dit le vieux; lower left verso: 170D / CS

Wikidata ID

Q64619644

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