1598/Oil on copperplate
18.0 x 26.0 cm
Permanent Exhibition: From the Renaissance to the 20th Century—500 Years of Western Paintings
Exhibition period:01 11, 2025 (SAT)~03 23, 2025 (SUN)
Permanent Exhibition Gallery 2 in the New Wingof Tokyo Fuji Art Museum
Permanent Exhibition: From the Renaissance to the 20th Century – 500 Years of Western Paintings
Exhibition period: 04 12, 2025 (SAT)~06 22, 2025 (SUN)
Permanent Exhibition Gallery 2 in the New Wing of Tokyo Fuji Art Museum
SUMMARY
The artist of this painting is the second son of Pieter Bruegel the Elder, the famous Flemish painter of the 16th century. Along with his four-year-older brother Pieter Brueghel the Younger, the artist also inherited the art world of their great father and developed it in the next generation. Although Jan Brueghel the Elder inherited his father's artistic legacy, as his father had actually passed away when he was two years old, he never had a chance to learn the artistic techniques from his father in person. As opposed to his brother who was skilled at copying his father’s paintings in a simplified way which could be called “narrative,” Jan painted unique rich paintings and was also known as “Velvet Brueghel” because of his delicate and smooth brushstroke. He had close relationships with Rubens and created works together with him. Born in Brussels, Jan Brueghel lived in Antwerp throughout his life. In the first half of the 1590s, he lived in Italy and received the patronage of Cardinal Federico Borromeo. In 1595, he moved to Milan with the cardinal, but eventually returned to Antwerp the next year (1596), where he gained great success as a painter. This work is one of his small pieces which offer a glimpse of his style of the second half of the 1590s, the period corresponding to the early stage of his artistic career in Antwerp. According to Yvonne Thiéry, there are three other identical versions of this painting: the first one (1600) that is in the collection of Landesmuseums Hannover, the second one (1601) that is in a private collection and the third one (1603) that is in the collection of Kunsthistorisches Museum Wien. Therefore, this painting is the earliest one among them. The painting depicts that a group of farmers is taking a rest under a big tree on the hillside on the way to carry their crops to the market. On the left close-up view are figures who are depicted in a small size but clearly recognizable, and on the right distant view is a bird’s-eye view of the streetscapes spreading out below them which is depicted in a dim bluish color tone using an aerial perspective. Such a composition is the painter’s most successful style of landscape painting.
ARTIST
Jan Brueghel the Elder
1568-1625
List of artworks by the same artist
INFORMATION

1 12, 2019 (Sat.)~5 4 (Sat.)
500 Years of Western Paintings: Collection of Tokyo Fuji Art Museum Shanghai PowerLong Museum (Shanghai, China)
10 23, 2018 (Tue.)~12 23 (Sun.)
500 Years of Western Paintings: Collection of Tokyo Fuji Art Museum Tsinghua University Art Museum (Beijing, China)
10 1, 2000 (Sun.)~12 3 (Sun.)
Masterpieces of Western Paintings from the Renaissance to the 20th Century National Dr. Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall (Taipei, Taiwan)
11 3, 1990 (Sat.)~12 2 (Sun.)
Masterpieces of European Oil Painting Ho-Am Art Museum (Yongin-gun, Kyunggi-do, South Korea)
9 22, 1990 (Sat.)~10 21 (Sun.)
Masterpieces of European Oil Painting Ho-Am Gallery (Seoul, South Korea)
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