This panel belongs to a series, commissioned by the Antwerp merchant Nicolaes Jongelinck for his suburban home. The cycle originally included six paintings showing the times of the year. Apart from 'The Harvesters', which is usually identified as representing July–August, or late summer, four other paintings of the group have survived (now in the Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna, and Lobkowicz Collection, Prague). Bruegel’s series is a watershed in the history of western art. The religious pretext for landscape painting has been suppressed in favor of a new humanism, and the unidealized description of the local scene is based on natural observations.
The Harvesters
Artist
Production date
1565
Collection
Object number
19.164
Material
Oil on panel
Inscription
Signed at lower right: BRUEGEL/ [MD]LXV
Dimensions
162 cm x 119 cm
Keywords
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