121. Pieter Brueghel the Younger,
Peasant’s Head, after 1616.

Oil on wood, 17.8 x 25 cm. Private collection.

 

 

A Prosperous Dynasty

 

 

As stated earlier, Pieter Bruegel the Elder’s two sons were also painters. The elder, Pieter Brueghel the Younger, was born in Brussels near the end of 1564 or the beginning of 1565, for a certificate from 10 October 1636 records him as seventy-two years old.

After the death of his father, who died before he could teach his son, Pieter the Younger accompanied his mother to live with his grandmother Marie Bessemers, Pieter Coecke’s widow. She taught him the basics of drawing. Later he went to Antwerp to work in the studio of the artist Gillis Van Coninxloo, who had ties to the family.

Coninxloo, a Protestant, was implicated during the uprising in Antwerp against the Duke of Parma and, in fear of repercussions, left in January 1585, first for Zeeland, and later to Frankenthal in the Rhineland-Palatinate region of what is now Germany. Living in Holland later in life, Gillis Van Coninxloo exerted a great deal of influence on the development of landscape painting.

Owing to Coninxloo’s flight, Pieter Brueghel the Younger was not able to benefit from his instruction for long, and the same year that his master left Antwerp, he was admitted into the Guild of Saint Luke. It is believed that he spent his entire life in Antwerp. On 5 November 1588 he married Elisabeth Goddelet, with whom he had seven children.

The eldest of his sons, Pieter Brueghel III, was baptised at Saint Andrew’s church in Antwerp on 6 July 1589, and became a rather distinguished portrait painter. His name is found in the register of the Guild of Saint Luke in 1608, as the son of a master. His work has not survived, but the delicate talent of his student Gonzales Coques saved him from oblivion.

Perhaps the burden of his large family weighed upon Pieter Brueghel the Younger, and kept him from a life of ease. Alphonse Wauters tells us that he never owned his own house and that he frequently had difficulty paying his rent. It is also known that he was gradually obliged to sell the inheritance from his grandmother, selling it to his wealthier brother Jan on 27 February 1612. Pieter Brueghel the Younger, all the same, was appreciated by his contemporaries. Van Dyck painted his portrait, and Rubens owned one of his paintings. His reputation brought him numerous students, among whom can be cited Frans Snyders, the great animal painter.