Pieter Brueghel the Younger

Pieter Brueghel the Younger brought his father’s pictures to a much wider public. His Antwerp workshop produced faithful, brightly coloured versions of the elder Bruegel’s most popular compositions, winter landscapes with skaters, proverbs, village scenes and the Adoration of the Magi in the snow, along with lively peasant scenes of his own.

He was born in Brussels in 1564 and was only a small child when his father died. He set up his studio in Antwerp around 1589, and it produced some 1,400 paintings; his Winter Landscape with Skaters and a Bird Trap exists in at least 60 versions. Frans Snyders was among his apprentices. He was nicknamed Hell Brueghel because he was thought to have painted fiery, grotesque scenes, though these are now given to his brother Jan. He died in Antwerp in 1638.

Fight Between Carnival and Lent is a good example of how closely he followed his father’s crowded compositions.