Spring

Pieter Bruegel completed Spring, a pen and brown ink drawing, in 1565 and it is now a part of the Albertina Museum in Vienna, Austria.

Spring features a huge level of detail, making it one of Bruegel's finest drawings. Multiple figures are hard at work, preparing for this critical season in the farming calendar. They sit in the foreground, making them the key focus from the artist's point of view. Supporting this activity are background features such as the thatching of a home extension as well as several piles of pre-grown stock, possibly food for livestock.

Pieter Bruegel the Elder was, of course, famous for depicting the lives of the poor, often within landscape scenes. At this time in art history there were not many artists who produced landscape paintings without any other detail such as figures or religious themes. It was only later that the likes of Turner and Constable would scenes purely of nature and tranquility. Bruegel himself would receive the nickname of Peasant Bruegel as a result of his devotion to the lives of the ordinary within his career.

Bruegel produced artworks in several different mediums, including many paintings and drawings but also etchings which were particularly common during this period in art history. Some of his original drawings could in turn be converted into etchings at a later date or used by other painters as study pieces, perhaps within his own studio. The Renaissance and periods shortly after were full of multi-disciplined artists who wanted to test their talents with a variety of different conditions.