The Hare Hunters

Museum record 25374: The Hare Hunters by Pieter Bruegel, the elder. A verified entry point for discovery.

What to notice

For The Hare Hunters (record 25374), start with modern, expressive, atmospheric. Compare the focal subject, edge treatment, and atmosphere before moving on.

Discover

This etching might represent two related proverbs popularized by the philosopher/writer Erasmus in the mid-1500s: “He who chases two hares catches neither” and “A hare yourself, you hunt for prey.” In compositional terms, the proverb served Pieter Bruegel the Elder as more of a pretext for the sweeping landscape scene that occupies most of the printed field. Bruegel’s inf luence on the early development of the landscape genre cannot be overestimated. He created important landscape drawings, but his impac…