The Peasant Dance
c. 1568 · Oil on oak panel · Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna
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This print
About this work
- Artist
- Pieter Bruegel the Elder (1525–1569)
- Year
- c. 1568
- Medium
- Oil on oak panel
- Original size
- 114 × 164 cm
- Collection
- Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna
- Movement
- Northern Renaissance
A couple rushes hand in hand towards a crowd of dancers at a village fair, while a bagpiper plays at a table outside an inn, men drink and argue, children copy their elders and a couple kisses; the church at the end of the street and a small picture of the Virgin on a tree are ignored. The red flag on the inn suggests the fair is the feast of Saint George. Bruegel painted the panel at about the same time as The Peasant Wedding, around 1567, and the two are the same size, so they may have been meant as a pair or part of a series on peasant life. Both show the monumental figures of his last years. Behind the gaiety many scholars see a moral: gluttony, anger and lust are all on show, and the man beside the piper wears a peacock feather, an emblem of vanity. The painting was in the Habsburg collection in Vienna by the 1610s, was taken to Paris by Napoleon's troops in 1808 and returned in 1815. It hangs in the Kunsthistorisches Museum.
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
Peasants dancing and drinking outside a village inn in red, black, white and ochre, lively and full of figures, for a dining room, kitchen or bar area at 36×24 in natural wood. An ochre, cream or brick-red wall; it pairs with Bal du moulin de la Galette.
Style, size & framing detail
- Style
- Northern Renaissance painting
- Era
- 16th century (c. 1568)
- Orientation
- Landscape
- Mood
- classic
- Rooms
- kitchen, dining room, living room
- Good gift for
- housewarming, anniversary, 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.
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 The Peasant Dance in the public domain?
What is it printed on?
When was The Peasant Dance 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.
