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DESCRIPTION:
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A true icon in Flemish landscape painting, this winter landscape is without a doubt the Brueghelien subject that has been the most frequently redone. In the past, some 123 compositions were associated with the name of Pieter Brueghel the Younger (of which 61 by Marlier). Today, however, it would appear that the list would include 43 autographed panels together with 28 unsigned compositions. There is genera as in the minute rendering of the branches which are always highly detailed in the work of Pieter the Younger, together with tiny details such as the swallows flying in the sky. In any case, we see a landscape that is modern, sweeping and panoramic in scope, with a low horizon foreshadowing Dutch art of the 17th century.
Aside from the realism of the rendering of nature and his highly exact recreation of the atmosphere of a winter's day, Brueghel nonetheless introduces a metaphorical warning to this painting. It is here that the meaning of the motif referred to in the title of the panel comes out, the trap threatening the innocence of the birds, just as the care free skaters could be threatened at any moment by a possible fatal crack in the ice… In fact, the hole that can be seen in the ice in the foreground, no doubt made to for the sake of the necessary water supply, serves to remind us of this potential threat. Danger lurks, to be sure, whether it be the danger of Spanish oppression or some other danger, more timeless and general.
In spite of it all, in this depiction of the joys of winter, Brueghel also celebrates, for the first time in the history of painting, man's capacity to overcome adversity (in this case the effects of the vagaries of climat).
This landscape had enormous repercussions: Grimmer, already in 1598-99, Molanus, Hoet but also, later on, van Alsloot, de Momper, Leytens and further to the north, Avercamp, van Breen, and van der Neer were all indebted to the new spirit that Pieter Brueghel the Younger brought to the winter landscape in this masterpiece.
About PIETER BRUEGHEL THE YOUNGER
1564 Bruxelles – Anvers 1638
Pieter Brueghel the Younger was the first son of Pieter Brueghel the Elder and settled at an early date in Antwerp to study in the landscape painter Gillis van Coninxloo’s studio. He became a Master in 1585. He could not be taught by his father who had died in 1569 when he was not yet 5 years old.
Pieter Brueghel the Younger followed two different trends. He first took up a great number of his father’s compositions again and developed several other subjects. He contributed his personal touch by introducing variations, notably the importance he gave to landscape and his own colors, brighter than his father’s.
After 1615, he asserted his personality in creating original compositions which immediately met great success and also instigated several imitations. The famed still-life and animal painter, Frans Snyders, and his own son Pieter Brueghel III were his pupils. Beyond the extension he gave to his father’s work, Pieter Brueghel the Younger holds a prominent place in the XVIIth century, especially by his fine pictorial quality and the purity of his colors, which influenced all the Flemish painters of his century.
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