id: 168193 accession number: 2009.80 share license status: CC0 url: https://clevelandart.org/art/2009.80 updated: The Rabbit Hunt, 1560. Pieter Bruegel (Flemish, 1527/8–1569). Etching; 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.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund 2009.80 title: The Rabbit Hunt title in original language: series: series in original language: creation date: 1560 creation date earliest: 1560 creation date latest: 1560 current location: creditline: Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund copyright: --- culture: Flanders, 16th century technique: etching department: Prints collection: PR - Etching type: Print find spot: catalogue raisonne: Orenstein 82, Sellink 96, New Hollstein 1 --- CREATORS * Pieter Bruegel (Flemish, 1527/8–1569) - artist --- measurements: 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.) state of the work: edition of the work: support materials: description: light weight antique laid paper watermarks: inscriptions: inscription: Inscribed in the plate, BRUEGEL, lower left and upper right H Cock excu. translation: remark: --- CURRENT EXHIBITIONS title: Treasures on Paper from the Collection of the Cleveland Museum of Art opening date: 2014-03-09T00:00:00 Treasures on Paper from the Collection of the Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art (organizer) (March 9-June 8, 2014). --- LEGACY EXHIBITIONS --- PROVENANCE Private collection, Antwerp date: 1987 footnotes: citations: Albert van Loock, Brussels date: footnotes: citations: Theodore Donson, New York date: footnotes: citations: Samuel Josefowitz, Lausanne, Switzerland and Whitchurch, UK date: footnotes: citations: The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH date: 2009 footnotes: citations: --- fun fact: Pieter Bruegel the Elder's paintings, drawings, and prints often drew from popular proverbs, translating them into pictorial form. In the case of this etching, "A hare yourself, you hunt for prey" is perhaps the most apt. digital description: 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. wall description: In his only original print, The Rabbit Hunt, Bruegel replicated the graphic vocabulary of dots and dashes seen in his most beautiful 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. What at first appears to be a pleasant landscape peopled by a hunter searching for hares actually illustrates an ominous and cautionary moral tale. Aiming his crossbow at the two hares, the hunter becomes the unwitting target of a second man carrying a lance; the hunter becomes the hunted. The rotting stump in the foreground intensifies the sense of foreboding. --- RELATED WORKS --- CITATIONS --- IMAGES web: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/2009.80/2009.80_web.jpg print: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/2009.80/2009.80_print.jpg full: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/2009.80/2009.80_full.tif