There is more than one famous painter named Brueghel.

Aside from his father, Pieter Bruegel the Elder, there is also Pieter's brother, Jan Brueghel the Elder, and of course that means that there is a Jan Brueghel the Younger. That’s a lot of Brueghels who were artists, so that means a lot of different kinds of paintings, right? Well, sort of. Brueghel the Younger liked to copy some of his father’s work (it was popular and sold well), but he also painted many of his own originals, as well.

Brueghel the Younger was born in Brussels in 1564, the first-born in the family. Both of his parents died when he was young, and he went to live with his grandmother, Mayken Verhulst, who happened to be an artist herself; it’s possible that she was he and his brother’s first art teacher. 

It seems that Brueghel the Younger had a well-equipped and staffed workshop, where he likely produced his copies through a technique called “pouncing,” which is a way of transferring an image from one surface to another. He and his shop probably had a lot of pounce action, as these would have been paintings that had already been proven to be popular. The most popular pictures for this crowd at the time were genre paintings; in simplest terms this just means scenes of everyday life.

In the Low Countries of this time period, though, the genre scenes usually went well beyond what they would, for example, in 19^th century American genre paintings. The versions from the Netherlands could be very detailed, with a lot of little scenes within the overall painting, as in Brueghel’s Netherlandish Proverbs. Tavern and outdoor scenes were great for this type of thing; just take a look at all of the things going on in the Younger’s Flemish Fair.

As for Brueghel the Younger’s copies, sometimes he did paint it just as his father did, but often as not, he added his own details, colors, and flourishes to the finished work. The painting, Reapers’ Meal (possibly also known as Summer: The Harvesters), is a good example of this; the Younger used bits and pieces from three different paintings by Pieter Bruegel the Elder. Brueghel the Younger also painted biblical scenes in the form of genre scenes, which is a little different, as in Massacre of the Innocents at the Kunsthistorisches Museum.

Brueghel the Younger was also known as “de helse Brueghel” or “Hell Brueghel,” in reference to paintings that featured fires and flames that were thought to be done by him. Turns out, those paintings were later attributed to his brother, Jan Brueghel the Elder. Then again, maybe he was just a hell-raiser type of guy.

Between his popular copies and originals, and his busy workshop, you’d think he would be doing well financially, but apparently that wasn’t always the case. He did have seven children (some of whom died young), but he may have liked to drink a wee bit too much, although this is not confirmed. We do know that he and his father, along with many other genre painters of that time, liked to paint lots of scenes of people drinking, so maybe that’s where that story started, but everyone loves a juicy rumor, right?