Children's Games
1560 · Oil on oak panel · Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna
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This print
About this work
- Artist
- Pieter Bruegel the Elder (1525–1569)
- Year
- 1560
- Medium
- Oil on oak panel
- Original size
- 118 × 161 cm
- Collection
- Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna
- Movement
- Northern Renaissance
Hundreds of children have taken over a town square and its streets: they roll hoops, walk on stilts, spin tops, ride hobby-horses and barrels, play leapfrog and blind man's buff, blow up a pig's bladder, stage mock weddings and mock tournaments, and even occupy the large civic building at the centre; at the top left a river opens into countryside where more children swim. Bruegel signed and dated the panel 1560. Around eighty particular games have been identified, making it a record of sixteenth-century play, but scholars think it also carries a moral: the children are as absorbed in their games as adults are in their own business, which in the sight of God may be no more important. It has been suggested it was meant as the first of a series on the ages of man, though no companion pieces are known. Karel van Mander mentioned it in 1604. Archduke Ernst acquired it in Brussels in 1594, and it hangs in the Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna.
This full-bleed edition prints the work edge to edge from a high-resolution scan of the original, very slightly cropped (a few percent at most) to fit the sheet. The gallery edition shows the whole work, uncropped. The original is in the public domain.
Where it works
A sunlit town square packed with tiny children at play, warm ochre and brick with touches of red and blue, for a kitchen, family room or playroom at 32×24 in natural wood. A cream, sage or soft yellow wall; it pairs with Winter Landscape with Ice Skaters.
Style, size & framing detail
- Style
- Northern Renaissance painting
- Era
- 16th century (1560)
- Orientation
- Landscape
- Mood
- classic
- Rooms
- kitchen, living room, dining room
- Good gift for
- housewarming, art lovers
Size. We'd hang this one at 32×24. Prints at 16×12, 24×18, 32×24 in — 16×12 for a shelf, desk or a gallery-wall grid; 24×18 above a console or sideboard; 32×24 as the statement piece above a sofa or headboard.
Framing. Printed edge to edge: a slim black or natural wood frame right to the image, or let the canvas wrap do the framing.
Pairing. Pairs as a set of three with other famous painting prints (10% off three or more).
Details & materials
Shipping & returns
Is this the whole painting, or a crop?
Is Children's Games in the public domain?
What is it printed on?
When was Children's Games painted, and in what medium?
What size works above a sofa or bed?
About this design
The Madten promise
An exhibition poster
The same artwork as a gallery exhibition poster — title, artist & date typeset beneath the image on a soft ground.
A fine-art print
The same artwork as a clean fine-art print — the image shown large with a minimal caption.
