The Peasant Dance
c. 1568 · Oil on oak panel · Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna
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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 exhibition-poster edition shows the whole work beneath original typography set in-house. 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 24×36 in natural wood. An ochre, cream or brick-red wall; it pairs with Bal du moulin de la Galette.
Style, size & framing detail
- Style
- Exhibition poster of a Northern Renaissance painting
- Era
- 16th century (c. 1568)
- Orientation
- Portrait
- Palette
- cream & beige
- Mood
- classic
- Rooms
- kitchen, dining room, living room, dorm room, hallway or entryway
- Good gift for
- housewarming, anniversary, art lovers
Size. We'd hang this one at 24×36. Prints at 12×18, 16×24, 24×36 in — 12×18 for a shelf, desk or a gallery-wall grid; 16×24 above a desk, console or in a hallway; 24×36 as the statement piece above a sofa or bed.
Framing. Exhibition posters sit best in a slim black frame with no mat — the typeset margin is the mat.
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
A fine-art print
The same artwork as a clean fine-art print — the image shown large with a minimal caption.
The full-bleed edition
The same plate printed edge-to-edge, filling the whole sheet — bold and immersive.































