Der Hirte

The present sheet, listed as by Pieter Bruegel the

Elder (1526/27–1569) in the Albertina’s old collection

inventory, is a copy after his original drawing that is

today in the Dresden Kupferstich-Kabinett (fig. 1).1

Whether the copy was executed in Bruegel’s workshop,

as Benesch suspected,2 must remain an open

question. And yet it represents a reproduction that

is faithful down to the smallest details and features

nearly the same dimensions.

The figure is turned slightly away from the viewer

and leans upon his staff. He is wearing a coat buttoned

in front and belted at the waist, simple shoes,

and a wide-brimmed hat. Because of his humble

attire, the figure is always referred to as a “herder,”

although no animals appear. Similar figures in the

midst of flocks of geese3 before a village backdrop

appear in works by Bruegel’s successors illustrating

proverbs (fig. 2). Pieter Bruegel’s son Jan (1568–1625)

used the figure in two paintings of the Adoration

of the Kings, where a shepherd in red garments and

a blue cap stands to the right of the stall (fig. 3).4

The multiple repetitions enable us to assume that a

model for the figure was present in Pieter Bruegel’s

workshop and estate.

Bruegel was regarded as the painter par excellence

of rural life, although depictions of peasants

make up only a small fraction of his oeuvre.

Representations of rural labor can be found much

earlier, for example, in the calendars of medieval

books of hours or in small-scale copperplate

engravings by Albrecht Dürer (1471–1528), Lucas

van Leyden (1494–1533), and Cornelis Massijs

(1510–1556/57).5 Amid the spiritual and cultural

upheaval of the Renaissance, interest in human

beings, including members of the lower social

orders, came to the fore. Bruegel depicted peasants’

lives and celebrations over the course of the four

seasons, doing so in a completely novel way, in

large-scale panel paintings. While the paintings

were privately owned and accessible to only a

few, the engravings after Bruegel’s designs such

as The Kermis at Hoboken and The Kermis of

Saint George, as well as Spring and Summer, were

widely disseminated, contributing decisively to the

popularity of his renderings of rural life.6 Bruegel’s

first biographer, Karel van Mander (1548–1606), also

highlighted the artist’s origins in a peasant village

in his Schilder-Boeck, published in 1604, his account

largely defining the lasting image of the “Peasant

Bruegel.”

There still remain many questions surrounding

Bruegel’s graphic work, which he created over

the course of roughly two decades, from 1552 to

1569. The number of works, of which sixty are

generally accepted by art historians as by his hand,

is surprisingly small. The majority are completed

compositions, and many of them served as models

for prints [73–76]. The drawing of the Herder is

among the few that displays a single figure. Even if

the Dresden original was executed in the presence

of a live model (naar het leven), it was likely not a

spontaneous sketch but a finished figure study.7

We possess neither compositional sketches, detail

studies, modelli, nor cartoons for Bruegel’s extant

paintings. Nonetheless, the accuracy with which he

painted figures and facial features and the spare

use of underdrawing in his panel paintings allow

us to posit the existence of models.8 Whether such

functional drawings were later regarded as lacking

in value and then destroyed9 is unknown.

The Albertina copy of the Dresden sheet is no

isolated instance, for there are repetitions of other

drawings by Bruegel, such as three versions of

The Epileptics at Meulebeke10 and four of the artist’s

The Painter and the Buyer.11 Ten other drawings have

at least one variant.12 It is striking that these depictions

were not models for engravings, but, instead,

autonomous landscapes and figurative works like

the present sheet. These copies were either made

by pupils imitating originals of the master or were

explicitly intended to be sold on the constantly

growing art market. The extraordinary number

of imitations of Bruegel’s drawings attest to the

remarkable impact and popularity of his art.

 

1. Mielke H. 1996, 63, no. 57; Ketelsen et al. 2011, 371, ill. 64, 340

(doubts regarding authorship); Haag 2018, 253, no. 79.

2. Benesch O. 1928, 13, no. 85.

3. Pieter Brueghel the Younger (1564–1638), Who Knows Why

Geese Go Barefoot? 1579–1638, oil on panel, 17 cm (diam.),

Koninklijk Museum voor Schone Kunsten, Antwerp, 872/5.

Further examples mentioned in the literature: private collection,

New York (formerly Rothan collection); sale, Fétis collection,

Brussels, November 8, 1909, no. 13 (dated 1611); Marlier 1969, 159;

Mielke H. 1996, 63, under no. 57. It is not clear whether we are

possibly dealing here with two works that have again appeared

on the art market: attributed to Pieter Brueghel the Younger,

Who Knows Why Geese Go Barefoot? 1579–1638, oil on panel, 17.8

cm (diam.), Christie’s New York, January 25–26, 2012, lot 17, rkd.

nl/explore/images/250648; Christie’s London, April 24, 2009, lot

19, see figure 2.

4. See figure 3 and a second version by Jan Brueghel the Elder,

Adoration of the Kings, 1598, opaque watercolor on vellum, 32.9

x 48 cm, National Gallery, London, NG3547. Anzelewsky et al.

1975, 79, under no. 92.

5. For the myth of the “Peasant Bruegel,” see Michel in Michel

2017, 67.

6. Frans Hogenberg, after Pieter Bruegel the Elder, The

Kermis at Hoboken, 1559, etching and engraving, 29.5 x 40.7 cm

(plate), Orenstein (NHD) 2006, 105, no. 43; Jan and Lucas van

Doetecum, after Pieter Bruegel the Elder, The Kermis of Saint

George, c. 1559, etching and engraving, 32.9 x 51.7 cm (plate),

Orenstein (NHD) 2006, 103, no. 42; Pieter van der Heyden, after

Pieter Bruegel the Elder, Spring, 1570, engraving, 22.4 x 28.5

cm (plate), Orenstein (NHD) 2006, 62, no. 29; Pieter van der

Heyden, after Pieter Bruegel the Elder, Summer, 1570, engraving,

22.2 x 28.1 cm, Orenstein (NHD) 2006, 52, no. 30.

7. Mielke in Anzelewsky et al. 1975, 79, under no. 92.

8. Cf. Currie and Allart 2012, 1:116, 161, 201–4, 231, 3:879–84.

9. Currie and Allart 2012, 3:884.

10. Copy after Pieter Bruegel the Elder, The Epileptics at

Meulebeke, pen and brown ink, white heightening, on blue paper,

28.6 x 41.4 cm, The Albertina Museum, Vienna, 7868; copy after

Pieter Bruegel the Elder, The Epileptics at Meulebeke, pen and

brown ink, white heightening, on brown prepared paper, 27 x

40.3 cm, Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, A 2489; copy after Pieter

Bruegel the Elder, The Epileptics at Meulebeke, pen and brown

ink, brush and wash in light blue, white heightening, on paper,

29.4 x 40.6 cm, Kupferstichkabinett, Staatliche Museen, Berlin,

KdZ 383; Mielke in Anzelewsky et al. 1975, 78–79, nos. 90–91;

Mielke H. 1996, 66–67. no. 62a–c.

11. The Painter and the Buyer, c. 1566, pen and brown ink, on

paper, 25.5 x 21.5 cm, The Albertina Museum, Vienna, 7500.

For the copies, see Mielke in Anzelewsky et al. 1975, 82, no. 96;

Michel in Michel 2017, 205n9.

12. Mielke H. 1996, 34, under no. 5; 37, under no. 10; 40, under

no. 18; 41, under no. 19; 44–45, under no. 25; 45–46, under no. 27;

46–47, under no. 29; 63, under no. 57; 63–64, under no. 58; 64–65,

under no. 60; as well as copies after original works in Bruegel’s

hand that have presumably been lost, 38, no. 13; 40, no. 15; 42,

no. 20; 45, no. 26; 66, no. 62; 72–73, probl. 6.

 

Emily J. Peters, Laura M. Ritter (Hg.), AK Tales of the City. Drawing in the Netherlands from Bosch to Bruegel, Cleveland Museum of Art 9.10.2022 - 8.1.2023, New Haven 2022, Kat. Nr. 56