BRUEGEL, Pieter the Elder
(b. ca. 1525, Brogel, d. 1569, Brussel)

Portrait of an Old Woman

c. 1564
Oil on wood, 22 x 18 cm
Alte Pinakothek, Munich

This is probably a study for a major painting. The date of its creation is debated.

Bruegel painted no commissioned portraits, nor any of prominent contemporaries. He was uninterested in any cult of personality. However, this portrait of a peasant woman reveals just how capable he was of portraying faces with highly individual features.