The Rabbit Hunters1560
In a vast landscape that stretches from a castle on a cliff to a distant city and an estuary dotted with sailboats, a hunter creeps up on two rabbits, while behind him a second figure approaches, as if the hunter were himself being stalked. More about this work
About this work
In a vast landscape that stretches from a castle on a cliff to a distant city and an estuary dotted with sailboats, a hunter creeps up on two rabbits, while behind him a second figure approaches, as if the hunter were himself being stalked. This is the only etching Pieter Bruegel the Elder is known to have made with his own hand; most of his prints were engraved by professionals after his drawings and published by Hieronymus Cock in Antwerp. The quick, free line shows his touch directly, and the small drama of hunter and hunted has invited many interpretations.
Written by Ochre Editions.
What you’re looking at
The image shows a landscape with a city in the distance, a castle on a cliff, fields, forests, and two figures with a dog hunting. There are sailboats on water and houses on farmland. The style is detailed with etching lines in sepia tones.
Description from the National Gallery of Art.
How it was made
- Etching
- The artist draws with a needle through a waxy coating on a copper plate, and acid bites the exposed lines. The plate is then inked, wiped and printed under pressure, so the line keeps the freedom of drawing.
- Laid paper
- Handmade on a mould of close-set wires, which leave fine parallel lines you can see when the sheet is held to the light.
Pieter Bruegel
Netherlandish, c. 1525/30–1569 · Died in Brussels.
Bruegel trained in Antwerp, travelled through Italy in the early 1550s, and on his return made drawings for the publisher Hieronymus Cock, many in the manner of Hieronymus Bosch. In 1563 he moved to Brussels. His paintings of peasant festivals, proverbs and the seasons look closely at village life and landscape, and The Harvesters belongs to his series of the months painted in 1565 for the Antwerp merchant Niclaes Jongelinck. The Rabbit Hunt is the only etching he made himself.
Written by Ochre Editions.
Rights and the museum’s record
Public domain. The National Gallery of Art has dedicated this image to the public domain under CC0, so anyone may copy, adapt and use it, for any purpose, without asking. Our prints and files are reproductions made from the museum’s image; the museum doesn’t endorse them.
- Object number
- 1972.16.1
- Credit
- Courtesy National Gallery of Art, Washington
- Type
- Licence
- CC0 1.0 Universal
- Museum record
- See it on the museum’s site
