Jan Brueghel the Elder

Bruegel the Elder, Jan

Flemish, 1568 - 1625

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Flemish painter (1568–1625)

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A pile of flowers overflows a straw basket resting atop a long pink marble table against an inky black background in this horizontal still life painting. Light coming from behind us illuminates the flowers and crisscrossing green stems and leaves. Every petal and leaf, color gradation, and vein are visible among the flowers. These include tulips, anemones, columbines, and roses, and other flowers in butter yellow, coral orange, blush pink, pale blue, and white. Amid the flowers are two black and yellow bees, along with a tiny snail making its way down a narrow green frond. A small orange and black butterfly or moth perches at the top left of the picture, clinging to a bud atop a thin green stem. The basket, of yellow woven straw, is round, wide, and shallow with handles on either side. Smaller blooms are visible through the open sides. We look slightly down onto the table, which spans the width of the composition. Around the basket, a few stems of flowers have fallen onto the table, and a ladybug crawls across the tabletop near us. To the right side of the basket rests a small, green glass vase with looped handles. It holds a handful of tiny, delicate blooms in tones of daffodil yellow, sky blue, ruby red, and white. A blue-winged butterfly has alighted on one of them.
Jan Brueghel the Elder, Flowers in a Basket and a Vase, 1615, oil on panel, Collection of Mrs. Paul Mellon, in Honor of the 50th Anniversary of the National Gallery of Art, 1992.51.7

Flowers in a Basket and a Vase

Jan Brueghel the Elder · 1615 · oil on panel ·  Accession ID  1992.51.7

Jan Brueghel the Elder, Wooded Landscape with Travelers, 1610, oil on panel, The Lee and Juliet Folger Fund, 2020.26.1

Wooded Landscape with Travelers

Jan Brueghel the Elder · 1610 · oil on panel ·  Accession ID  2020.26.1

People gather under trees next to an expansive river dotted with boats in this horizontal landscape painting. The people are tiny in scale in the landscape, and they all have light skin. The softly rippling river takes up the right half of the composition. The water is bottle green closest to us, shifting to celestial blue in the distance. The water blends with the same color blue in the sky along the horizon, which comes halfway up the painting. Rowboats and sailboats line the shore along our left and float into the distance, some with sails tied up and others unfurled. In the lower right corner, a ferryboat filled with travelers, horses, and cattle approaches a landing on the lower left. At the landing, a boatman passes a baby to a man standing on the riverbank, while several ladies, a young girl, and a dog wait nearby. On the ground in front of this group is a basket, several packages, and dead fish. A second small group awaits passage just beyond the man receiving the baby. The women wear long dresses and hats or bonnets, and the men wear jackets, knee-length britches, stockings, and caps in shades of royal blue, petal pink, laurel green, ruby red, or white. A copse of trees with tall, slender canopies fills the left third of the composition. People walk along a path through the trees and work in and around boats along the riverbank. Farther back, a stone bridge crosses a stream, and beyond it, tan buildings cluster around a church spire seen through a break in the trees. Above the church, the sky is a pale cream color, and the light streams down to highlight the bridge, buildings, and the water. Birds sit in the trees and fly overhead, while waterfowl gather by the landing, near the lower left. The painting is signed and dated in the lower left: “BRVEGHEL 1607.”
Jan Brueghel the Elder, River Landscape, 1607, oil on copper, Patrons' Permanent Fund and Nell and Robert Weidenhammer Fund, 2000.4.1

River Landscape

Jan Brueghel the Elder · 1607 · oil on copper ·  Accession ID  2000.4.1

Bibliography

1604

  • Mander, Karel van. Het Schilder-boeck. Haarlem, 1604: 234.

1753

  • Houbraken, Arnold. De Groote Schouburgh der Nederlantsche Konstschilders en Schilderessen. 3 vols. in 1. The Hague, 1753 (Reprint: Amsterdam, 1976): 1:85-87.

1969

  • Winkelmann-Rhein, Gertraude. The Paintings and Drawings of Jan "Flower" Bruegel. New York, 1969.

1971

  • Bie, Cornelis de. Het gulden cabinet van de edel vry schilderconst. Edited by Gerard Lemmens. Reprint of Antwerp, 1661/1662. Soest, 1971: 89-91.

1979

  • Ertz, Klaus. Jan Brueghel der Ältere (1568-1625): Die Gemälde mit kritischem Oeuvrekatalog. Cologne, 1979.

1988

  • Jones, Pamela M. "Federico Borromeo as a Patron of Landscapes and Still Lifes. Christian Optimism in Italy ca. 1600." The Art Bulletin 70 (1988): 261-272.

1996

  • Brenninkmeijer-de Rooij, Beatrijs. Roots of seventeenth-century Flower Painting: Miniatures, Plant Books, Paintings. Leiden, 1996.

2005

  • Wheelock, Arthur K., Jr. Flemish Paintings of the Seventeenth Century. The Collections of the National Gallery of Art Systematic Catalogue. Washington, D.C., 2005: 14.