Pieter Brueghel

There is very little information known about the life of this painter, also known as "Peasant Bruegel". He was probably born in a village near Breda around 1525.
Through his works of art it may be deduced that he lived through a period of great political turmoil and during one of the most complicated periods in the history of Flanders. In the last thirty years of this life, in which he reached the peak of his career, Brueghel saw himself surrounded by wars, famine and assaults and lootings: the war against France (1556-59), the repression against the insurgents of Holland, the disturbances caused by the Reform, the execution of the Counts Egmont and Hoorn and the rebellion of William of Orange. In the beginning he worked in the workshop of Peter Koeche van Aalst (1502-1550) and later with Jerome Kock-Wellens (1510-1570), a great engraving editor. Through Kock-Wellens he met George Ghisi (1520-1582), who was at that time preparing a series of plates of engravings of Rafael and Michelangelo. In 1551, Brueghel became a part of the Corporation of San Lucas in Amberes. The following year he travelled to France and to Italy, repeating the trips his two former teachers had done. Towards 1554 he returned to his homeland and during that time he worked with Kock-Wellens, drawing a number of models with allegoric meanings, for example "The Temptations of San Antonio, "Big Fish Eats Little Fish", "Donkey in the School", his series on "Virtues and Vices", and "The Alchemist". Although he was very interested in etching, in his last years he created his greatest works of art.
In 1563 he moved to Brussels where he married Mayken Kock-Wellens, the daughter of his ex-employer. It was there that he painted his most famous paintings with a religious tone, different and gay situations inspired from daily life and the celebrations of the peasants as well as the series of the Months. Brueghel died on 9 September 1569. He was buried in Brussels in the cemetery of the Church of Notre-Dame-de-la-Chapelle.