The Rabbit Hunt

The Rabbit Hunt

Pieter Bruegel the Elder, 1560

Download free · 3400 × 2634px View on a wall Edit

Artist: Pieter Bruegel the Elder (Netherlandish, 1525–1569)
Medium: Etching
Size: Platemark: 22.1 x 29 cm (8 11/16 x 11 7/16 in.); Sheet: 24.3 x 31.8 cm (9 9/16 x 12 1/2 in.)
Culture: Flanders
Museum: Cleveland Museum of Art
Rights: CC0 — no rights reserved

In this etching considered the artist's only autograph print, Pieter Bruegel the Elder replicated the graphic vocabulary of dots and dashes of his pen-and-ink drawings to evoke a vivid sense of atmosphere and light and create a deep recession into space. His representations of nature, including majestic mountains—an unusual and popular subject in the flat Netherlands—exemplify an unprecedented naturalism that the artist helped to usher in.

What at first appears to be a pleasant landscape with a hunter aiming his crossbow at some rabbits in the grass becomes more ominous when we notice the spear-bearing soldier stalking not the rabbits, but the hunter. Bruegel often translated popular proverbs into pictorial form: in this case, "A hare yourself, you hunt for prey" is the most apt. In Bruegel's world, reversals such as this suggested that humans, vainly believing they control their fate, are instead subject to powers outside of their control.

More by Pieter Bruegel the Elder

The Tower of Babel

The Tower of Babel

Pieter Bruegel the Elder, c. 1568

The Fall of the Rebel Angels

The Fall of the Rebel Angels

Pieter Bruegel the Elder, 1562

Netherlandish Proverbs

Netherlandish Proverbs

Pieter Bruegel the Elder, 1559

The Hunters in the Snow

The Hunters in the Snow

Pieter Bruegel the Elder, 1565

The Harvesters

Pieter Bruegel the Elder, 1565

The Peasant Dance

The Peasant Dance

Pieter Bruegel the Elder, c. 1568

The Tower of Babel

The Tower of Babel

Pieter Bruegel the Elder, 1563

The Return of the Herd

The Return of the Herd

Pieter Bruegel the Elder, 1565

The Triumph of Death

The Triumph of Death

Pieter Bruegel the Elder, 1562

Dull Gret

Pieter Bruegel the Elder, 1563

Landscape with the Flight into Egypt

Landscape with the Flight into Egypt

Pieter Bruegel the Elder, 1563

The Massacre of the Innocents

The Massacre of the Innocents

Pieter Bruegel the Elder

Visually similar

Landschap met een herder met kudde voor een stad

Landschap met een herder met kudde voor een stad

Sébastien Bourdon, 1626 - 1671

St. Jerome Reading in an Italian Landscape

St. Jerome Reading in an Italian Landscape

Rembrandt, c. 1653

Siege of a Fortress: Right Portion

Siege of a Fortress: Right Portion

Albrecht Dürer, 1527

Landscape with Two Figures on a Bridge

Landscape with Two Figures on a Bridge

Sébastien Bourdon

Landschap met groot kasteel

Landschap met groot kasteel

Albrecht Altdorfer, c. 1506 - 1522

A Mountain Landscape

A Mountain Landscape

Hans von Aachen, c. mid 17th century

Landscape with the Cannon

Landscape with the Cannon

Albrecht Dürer, 1518

Landschap met donkere rotswand

Landschap met donkere rotswand

Albrecht Altdorfer, c. 1506 - 1522

The Entombment

Andrea Mantegna, ca. 1485

Views: A Pilgrim at Prayer

Views: A Pilgrim at Prayer

Canaletto, 1735–1746

Mountain Landscape with a Distant Vista

Mountain Landscape with a Distant Vista

Guercino, c. 1640 - c. 1650

Imaginary View of Venice, houses at left with figures on terraces, a domed church at center in the background, boats and boat-sheds below, and a seated man observing from a wall at right in the foreground, from "Views" (Vedute altre prese da i luoghi altre ideate da Antonio Canal)

Imaginary View of Venice, houses at left with figures on terraces, a domed church at center in the background, boats and boat-sheds below, and a seated man observing from a wall at right in the foreground, from "Views" (Vedute altre prese da i luoghi altre ideate da Antonio Canal)

Canaletto, 1741