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''Winter Landscape with Ice-skaters and Bird-trap'' is a 1565 painting attributed to the Flemish painter Pieter Bruegel the Elder, located in the Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium in
Brussels Brussels (french: Bruxelles or ; nl, Brussel ), officially the Brussels-Capital Region (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) (french: link=no, Région de Bruxelles-Capitale; nl, link=no, Bruss ...
. It shows a village scene where people skate on a frozen river, while on the right among trees and bushes, birds gather around a bird trap. It has become known as the original or oldest exemplar of the most successful painting of the Brueghel family dynasty, since the art historian
Klaus Ertz Klaus Ertz (born 1945) is a German art historian specializing in the Brueghel family of artists and their workshop. Ertz was born in Homburg and is best known for his catalogues raisonnés on Jan Brueghel the Elder, his son Jan II, his brothe ...
documented 127 copies in his comprehensive monograph on the artist's son in 2000.Klaus Ertz, ''Pieter Brueghel der Jüngerer (1564-1637/8): Die Gemälde mit kritischem oeuvrekatalog'', Luca verlag Lingen, 2000 Of the 127 documented copies in 2000, Ertz lists 45 as by
Pieter Brueghel the Younger Pieter Brueghel (also Bruegel or Breughel) the Younger (, ; ; between 23 May and 10 October 1564 – between March and May 1638) was a Flemish painter, known for numerous copies after his father Pieter Bruegel the Elder's work as well as h ...
, 51 doubtful, and 31 rejected-but-notable, and all of these were created in the 17th century. Since 2000 the discussion has not stopped and possibly this painting employs motifs from some earlier lost original by
Jan Brueghel the Elder Jan Brueghel (also Bruegel or Breughel) the Elder (, ; ; 1568 – 13 January 1625) was a Flemish painter and draughtsman. He was the son of the eminent Flemish Renaissance painter Pieter Bruegel the Elder. A close friend and frequent collabora ...
, along the lines of ''
The Hunters in the Snow ''The Hunters in the Snow'' ( nl, Jagers in de Sneeuw), also known as ''The Return of the Hunters'', is a 1565 oil-on-wood painting by Pieter Bruegel the Elder. The Dutch and Flemish Renaissance painting, Northern Renaissance work is one of a se ...
''.Sotheby's record
for exemplar sold 30 January 2014 for 2,741,000 USD
Each known copy seems to emphasize subtle details, whether it is in the game of curling, the arrangement of the bird trap, the hole in the ice, or various moralistic and religious themes. Two copies documented by Ertz depict the ''
Rest on the Flight into Egypt The Rest on the Flight into Egypt is a subject in Christian art showing Mary, Joseph, and the infant Jesus resting during their flight into Egypt. The Holy Family is normally shown in a landscape. The subject did not develop until the seco ...
''. The variation of motifs and their popularity in the copies has led to much speculation and comparison of contemporary engravings and the later popularity of the winter landscape as its own art genre, which enabled painters such as
Hendrick Avercamp Hendrick Avercamp (January 27, 1585 (bapt.) – May 15, 1634 (buried)) was a Dutch painter during the Dutch Golden Age of painting. He was one of the earliest landscape painters of the 17th-century Dutch school, he specialized in painting th ...
to build a business around painting them.


Gallery

File:Circle of Pieter Bruegel the Elder - Winter Landscape with a Bird Trap.jpg, Version owned by
Archduke Leopold of Austria Leopold I (Leopold Ignaz Joseph Balthasar Franz Felician; hu, I. Lipót; 9 June 1640 – 5 May 1705) was Holy Roman Emperor, King of Hungary, Croatia, and Bohemia. The second son of Ferdinand III, Holy Roman Emperor, by his first wife, Maria ...
, Kunsthistorisches Museum File:Brueghel the Younger Winter landscape.jpg, Version owned by the
National Museum, Wrocław The National Museum in Wrocław ( pl, Muzeum Narodowe we Wrocławiu), established 28 March 1947 and officially inaugurated on 11 July 1948, is one of Poland's main branches of the National Museum system. It holds one of the largest collections of ...
File:After Pieter Brueghel II - The Bird Trap 127001 (cropped).jpg, Version owned by
Christian IV of Denmark Christian IV (12 April 1577 – 28 February 1648) was King of Denmark and Norway and Duke of Holstein and Schleswig from 1588 until his death in 1648. His reign of 59 years, 330 days is the longest of Danish monarchs and Scandinavian mon ...
and part of 1618-1620 decoration of
Rosenborg Castle Rosenborg Castle ( da, Rosenborg Slot) is a renaissance castle located in Copenhagen, Denmark. The castle was originally built as a country summerhouse in 1606 and is an example of Christian IV's many architectural projects. It was built in the D ...
File:Pieter Brueghel the Younger - Winter Landscape with a Bird-trap - WGA03617.jpg, Version owned by
Elisabeth Farnese Elisabeth Farnese ( Italian: ''Elisabetta Farnese'', Spanish: ''Isabel Farnesio''; 25 October 169211 July 1766) was Queen of Spain by marriage to King Philip V. She exerted great influence over Spain's foreign policy and was the ''de facto'' r ...
,
Prado The Prado Museum ( ; ), officially known as Museo Nacional del Prado, is the main Spanish national art museum, located in central Madrid. It is widely considered to house one of the world's finest collections of European art, dating from the ...
File:Pieter Brueghel II - The Bird Trap 733N09102 78DCP.jpg, Version sold in January 2014 by Sotheby's NY for $2.3 million File:Pieter Brueghel II - The Bird Trap 011L14033 5WV4P.jpg, Version sold in July 2014 by Sotheby's London for £3.4 million


References

{{Authority control Paintings in Brussels 1565 paintings Landscape paintings