“The Painter and the Buyer”
An incredible double portrait from an artist who didn’t like to paint portraits.
“The Painter and the Buyer”, sometimes referred to as “The Painter and the Connoisseur”, is a brilliant drawing by the Flemish artist, Pieter Bruegel the Elder. It was made circa 1565 to 1566 with pen and brown ink on paper.
In this piece, Bruegel draws a double portrait. The man on the left is an artist. He holds a paintbrush in his hand and wears a long beard, with his wild hair barely contained beneath his cap. He looks off to the left with a serious expression, almost a grimace. The man on the right is an art collector. He stands behind the artist, looking to the left through his glasses with a smile and happy expression, his mouth slightly agape. At the same time, he reaches into his purse for some money.
The men’s expressions and overall appearance differ so vastly that they seem more like caricatures than portraits. This highlights the dilemma the artist might face while creating art for the collector rather than for himself. He works with a man breathing down his neck, waiting for the art to be finished. Most of Bruegel’s work was made for patrons and it was a relationship he knew well.
Some historians believe the artist to be a self-portrait of Bruegel and the only depiction made of Bruegel during his lifetime. However, others believe it to be a portrait of Hieronymus Bosch, made posthumously. Bosch was famous for his paintings of fantastical scenes full of monsters, humans, chaos, and earthly temptations.
“The Painter and the Buyer” is currently in the collections of the Albertina Museum in Vienna, Austria.
For more on Pieter Bruegel the Elder, please visit his short biography here.
You can find more artists to learn about here.
It is so much fun to get these dispatches from the world of art history, and I always learn details I didn’t know. I hadn’t seen this drawing before at all. It’s so interesting. I agree with your surmise that the buyer/collector is the reason the painter wears such a pained expression. Imagine having to harness such a talent to please someone else just because he/she is paying the bill. Sounds like an unwelcome constraint indeed, and one familiar to contemporary artists in many fields, I’m sure.
This also sent me to revisit my favorite Bruegel the Elder drawing, The Beekeepers, which can be seen here: https://bruegel.vlaamsekunstcollectie.be/en/artwork/beekeepers
Modern beekeeping outfits look strange enough, but these, being unfamiliar, look even spookier to my eye. I can see how the headgear protected the face, but I guess beekeepers took stings on the hands in stride. I do wonder what Bruegel himself wore while he was making his preliminary studies for this.
Thanks, as always, Heather, for bringing a ray of culture into my day.