Pieter Bruegel the Elder

Landscape with the Fall of Icarus

US$ 678.00

A farmer ploughs his field, a shepherd tends his flock and a ship sails past, all indifferent to a pair of legs disappearing into the sea in the corner of the canvas — Icarus, barely noticed at the moment of his fall. The picture illustrates Ovid’s myth by refusing to centre it, making the point that the world carries on regardless of individual tragedy. It inspired W.H. Auden’s poem “Musée des Beaux Arts” nearly four centuries later.

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Artist

Pieter Bruegel the Elder (c.1525-1569) painted peasant life and landscape with an eye that was neither purely comic nor purely moralising, often folding proverbs, myths or biblical stories into scenes of everyday rural labour. Little is documented about his training, though he travelled to Italy early in his career before settling in Antwerp and then Brussels. His sons continued his workshop, and this composition survives mainly through copies, of which this is considered the finest.

Material Archival canvas
Frame Supplied rolled, unframed
Print Fine-art print, printed to order
Size 54 × 35 inches
Delivery 2–3 weeks
Certificate of Authenticity Included, emailed on delivery
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