Pieter Bruegel the Elder : drawings and prints ; [catalogue of an exhibition held May 24 - Aug. 5, 2001 at the Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam and Sept. 25 - Dec. 2, 2001 at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

Pieter Bruegel the Elder (1525/30-1569) was a remarkable draftsman and designer of prints as well as a great painter. His independent drawings and designs for engravings and etchings, which were carried out by the leading printmakers of his day, have fascinated scholars and the general public alike since they were created. They have recently been the subject of research that has given rise to a reevaluation of the parameters of Bruegels oeuvre. The new scholarship has been brought to bear in the texts of the present volume, which accompanies a major exhibition of 140 of Bruegels prints and drawings to be shown at the Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam, from May to August 2001 and at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, from September to December 2001. An international group of experts discusses the new Bruegel who has emerged from recent studies, in essays on the artists life, his contributions as a draftsman and as a printmaker, the survival of his art, and his relationship to the humanism of his day. They also illuminate his genius in entries on all the works in the exhibition. Every work is illustrated and rich comparative illustrations are included. Provenances and references for every work, a bibliography, and an index are supplied. Pieter Bruegel the Elder (1525/30–1569) was a remarkable draftsman and designer of prints as well as a great painter. His independent drawings and designs for engravings and etchings, which were carried out by the leading printmakers of his day, have fascinated scholars and the general public alike since they were created. They have recently been the subject of research that has given rise to a reevaluation of the parameters of Bruegel’s oeuvre. The new scholarship has been brought to bear on the texts in the present volume. An international group of experts presents essays on the artist’s life, his contributions as a draftsman and as a printmaker, his iconography and social and political context, and the posthumous survival of his art. The authors also illuminate Bruegel’s genius in discussions of individual prints and drawings. Each of these works is illustrated and many comparative illustrations are also included.

Author Biography: Nadine M. Orenstein is Associate Curator, Department of Drawings and Prints, The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

One of the most beloved of Netherlandish artists, Pieter Bruegel the Elder (ca. 1525/30-1569) is best known today for his paintings of peasants and proverbs. He is now less commonly recognized as the inventive and influential draftsman who brought a new naturalism to the rendering of landscape and who created a body of print designs that pointedly dissects the imperfections of human nature, even though it was through this exceptional graphic work that Bruegel's art achieved widespread fame during the sixteenth century. This catalogue accompanied the first major exhibition devoted solely to Bruegel's remarkable drawings and prints, which have recently been the subject of research that has given rise to a reevaluation of the parameters of Bruegel's oeuvre. -- Metropolitan Museum of Art website "One of the greatest Netherlandish artists, Pieter Bruegel the Elder (1525/30-1569) is best known today for his paintings of peasant life. Yet it was above all through his exceptional graphic work that he achieved widespread fame during the sixteenth century. His drawings and the prints made after his designs, while based on traditional sources, are innovative and independent, and they are wide ranging in their subject matter."--BOOK JACKET.