The Brueghels—one of 16th- and 17th-century Europe’s most influential painting dynasties. Its patriarch, the innovative artist Pieter Bruegel the Elder, viewed reality objectively and portrayed ordinary people at work and play as they were, without prejudices. His keen powers of observation were passed down to his sons, grandsons, and great grandsons. Around it, the Brueghel painting style and traditions were built.
His first son, Pieter the Younger, produced faithful copies of his father’s works, and his second son, Jan the Elder, inherited and developed his father’s interest in nature and painted numerous masterpieces. It was Jan the Elder’s descendants—Jan the Younger, Ambrosius, and Abraham—who carried on the family’s painting style and established the name “Brueghel” as an enduring brand.
Through some 100 valuable works—principally from private collections—this ambitious exhibition provides an overall picture of the Brueghel dynasty and the world of 16th- and 17th-century world of Flemish painting.