Hunters in the Snow is one of the most impressive of all works to have come from the painter and remains very well known even today, many centuries after it was originally created. It features hunters returning from a hunt within a charming winter scene with white snow covering most of the painting, and great detail covering the majority of the art work. Pieter Bruegel was an artist who would always use exciting scenes of activity set with in sprawling landscapes which would entertain the viewer of each painting.
Pieter Bruegel was a true landscape artist from a time when it was much less common and most of his paintings depict local people going about their daily lives all across a large landscape and it is clear that the artist was only interested in the lives of real people, often depicting peasants and such like rather than the rich and famous of his era, as most other notable painters would have chosen to do. This decision seems to have helped him gain integrity within the modern era as that is now much more respected than simply creating portraits of those in power.
Bruegel the Elder was followed into the the art world by his son the Younger who is generally seen as someone who simply rode on the back of his father's success and only produced a few works that are considered to be of the same standard. Both had a similar style but the son would often simply reproduce copies of his father's originals and sell them on as his own, showing his good technical ability but not the same creative mind of his father.
Dutch art had an incredible period of success over several centuries where it contributed the likes of Bosch, Vermeer and the Bruegels in an impressive list of painters who led creative ideas and technical qualities across Europe at certain times.
Whilst Hunters in the Snow is Bruegel's best known painting, other notable works included:
- Icarus
- Tower of Babel
- Massacre of the Innocents
- Triumph of Death
- Winter Landscape with Skaters and Bird Trap
- Childrens Games
- Fall of Icarus
- Blue Cloak
- Hay Making the Hay Harvest
- Village Wedding Feast
- Parable of the Sower
- Peasants Dance
- Dulle Griet
- Fight Between Carnival and Lent
- Spring Haymakers
