Netherlandish Proverbs
1559 · Oil on oak panel · Gemäldegalerie, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin
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This print
About this work
- Artist
- Pieter Bruegel the Elder (1525–1569)
- Year
- 1559
- Medium
- Oil on oak panel
- Original size
- 117 × 163 cm
- Collection
- Gemäldegalerie, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin
- Movement
- Northern Renaissance
A village by the sea is crowded with people acting out, literally, more than a hundred Dutch sayings and idioms: a man bangs his head against a brick wall, another fills in the well after the calf has drowned, a woman hangs a blue cloak on her husband, the sign that she deceives him, and the world itself is turned upside down on the sign of the inn. The painting's early titles, The Blue Cloak and The Folly of the World, show that Bruegel meant it less as a puzzle than as a catalogue of human foolishness. He painted it in Antwerp in 1559, when collections of proverbs, among them Erasmus's Adagia, were widely read; an engraving of 43 proverbs by Frans Hogenberg from about the same time is close in composition. Bruegel's son Pieter the Younger made at least sixteen copies, which vary in the sayings shown. The original, signed and dated 1559, was bought by the Berlin museums from an English collection in 1914 and hangs in the Gemäldegalerie.
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 crowded seaside village of tiny figures acting out proverbs among red-roofed houses, ochre, red and green under a pale sky, for a study, hallway or dining room at 36×24 in black. A cream, ochre or warm white wall; it pairs with The Tower of Babel.
Style, size & framing detail
- Style
- Northern Renaissance painting
- Era
- 16th century (1559)
- Orientation
- Landscape
- Mood
- classic
- Rooms
- dining room, hallway or entryway, study or library, living room
- Good gift for
- housewarming, art lovers
Size. We'd hang this one at 36×24. Prints at 18×12, 24×16, 36×24 in — 18×12 for a shelf, desk or a gallery-wall grid; 24×16 above a console or sideboard; 36×24 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. Also available gallery-wrapped on canvas, ready to hang with no frame.
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 Netherlandish Proverbs in the public domain?
What is it printed on?
When was Netherlandish Proverbs 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.
