The object of the following book-list is to mention not everything
that has been printed about Pieter Bruegel but only such volumes and
articles as have definite value. The major cause of its shortness,
however, is the fact that the literature of the subject is surprisingly
small in quantity; in English, particularly, there is almost nothing
beyond short paragraphs in some histories of art and the usual
unilluminating brevities of general reference works.
+Pieter Bruegel l’Ancien.+ Son Oeuvre et son Temps. Par +René Van
Bastelaer+ et +Georges Hulin De Loo+. Bruxelles: G. Van Oest & Cie.:
1907.
This, the first volume to be published on Bruegel, remains the standard
work. For the handsomeness and completeness of its reproductions
combined with the accuracy and thoroughness of its text, treating every
aspect of the painter’s life and work, it is a notable accomplishment
in book-making and in scholarship. What has since been written and
the pictures that have since been discovered still do no more than
supplement certain phases of it; nor can it be superseded until someone
is prepared to give time and money to a thorough search of European
galleries and private collections. It is now, however, somewhat
difficult to obtain.
+Les Estampes de Peter Bruegel l’Ancien.+ Par +René Van Bastelaer+.
Bruxelles: G. Van Oest & Cie.: 1908.
Within its chosen field this volume also remains the standard and needs
only supplementing by later researches. Its 278 plates reproduce all
the prints then thought to be by Bruegel or after his designs.
+Pierre Bruegel l’Ancien.+ Par +Charles Bernard+. Bruxelles: G. Van
Oest & Cie.: 1908.
This, which appeared immediately after the two preceding volumes, may
fairly be described as a good popularization of them, with additional
historical material drawn from other sources. The thirty reproductions
are very good half-tones; the text gives a satisfactory account of the
painter’s life and times, although there is too much reliance upon the
mere subject-matter of the pictures and although parts of Van Mander’s
clumsy narrative are transposed into French of debatable suavity. It is
the only generally available biography in French. To any reader of it
my indebtedness to it for facts (other than those given by Van Mander)
and my occasional difference of interpretation will be equally evident.
+Der Bauern-Bruegel.+ Von +W. Hausenstein+. München & Leipzig: R. Piper
& Co.: 1910.
This is commended by Herr Friedländer (see eighth item) as a portrait
of the man Bruegel; as a discussion of his work, however, it has been
superseded in German by Herr Friedländer’s own book.
+“The Adoration of the Kings” by Pieter Brueghel the Elder.+ By +C. J.
Holmes+. In The Burlington Magazine; vol xxxviii, no. ccxv: London:
February 1921.
+The Harvesters by Pieter Bruegel the Elder.+ By +B[ryson]
B[urroughs]+. In The Bulletin of the Metropolitan Museum of Art: vol.
xvi, no. 5: New York: May 1921.
The fact that these two articles ostensibly deal each with a single
picture should not obscure either their general interest or their
significance as indications and instruments of the contemporary
tendency to assign to Bruegel a higher rank than he has had heretofore.
+Von Eyck bis Bruegel.+ Studien zur Geschichte der Niederländischen
Malerei. Von +Max J. Friedländer+. Berlin: Julius Bard: 1921. (Of
Bruegel: p. 169 to end).
The main point of interest about Bruegel in this book is that the
author gives a catalogue of paintings which differs considerably, both
in its omissions and in its additions, from that given by M. Hulin (see
first item).
+Pieter Bruegel.+ Von +Max J. Friedländer+. Berlin: Propyläen-Verlag:
1921.
This is the standard general work in German, and contains a trustworthy
translation of the entire text of Van Mander concerning Bruegel. Even
those who do not read German might well possess this book for the
clearness and frequent brilliancy of its 101 half-tone reproductions,
the majority of which are from drawings and prints. Herr Friedländer is
the only continental scholar so far whose work takes cognizance of the
picture now in the Metropolitan Museum.
+Bruegel.+ Von +Kurt Pfister+. Leipzig: Insel-Verlag: 1921.
This short essay merits notice as a piece of writing. The 78 half-tone
reproductions are not very clear, but they include more than a dozen
which are in neither Friedländer nor Bernard.
+Pieter Bruegel.+ Vierzehn Faksimiledrucke nach Zeichnungen und
Aquarellen. Mit einer Einleitung von +Kurt Pfister+. München: R.
Piper & Co.: 1922.
This handsome series of large plates is a publication of the
_Marées-Gesellschaft_ and for faithfulness in facsimile reproduction is
not to be surpassed.
+Pieter Brueghel’s “Fall of Icarus” in the Brussels Museum.+ By +Arthur
Edwin Bye+. In Art Studies: Mediæval Renaissance and Modern: No. 1.
Princeton: University Press: 1923.
A sympathetic though not stylistically distinguished essay in
appreciation, written around the _Fall of Icarus_ in the Brussels
Museum.
+Renaissance Art.+ By +Elie Faure+. New York: Harper & Brothers: 1923.
(Of Bruegel: pp. 276–286).
This author’s habitual saturation with his subject-matter has enabled
him to convey the multitudinous quality to be felt in many of Bruegel’s
pictures and also to adumbrate the humanity of soul behind them; but
he has almost nothing to say about the more narrowly æsthetic merits
which permit of Bruegel being ranked among the great; and even on the
score of subject-matter Bruegel’s livingness is almost smothered under
a rhetoric made sluggish with anecdotal detail.
+Breughel.+ By +Aldous Huxley+. In The Calendar of Modern Letters: vol.
1, no. 6: London: August 1925.
This essay is a little sermon on the virtue of comprehensiveness in the
appreciation of art, with Bruegel as an ideal text. It is not itself a
comprehensive presentation of the painter or his work and it has very
few traces of the verbal brilliancy which has had so much to do with
putting this author’s novels in the best-selling class; but it may
make the name of Bruegel known to many who are not in a position to
penetrate his work on their own account. I note a curious slip in the
transposition of titles between the Brussels _Numbering at Bethlehem_
and the Vienna _Massacre of the Innocents_.
+Die Zeichnungen Pieter Bruegels.+ Von +Karl Tolnai+. München: R. Piper
& Co.: 1925.
This book has immediately taken rank as the standard authority on the
drawings; its 104 large half-tone plates reproduce every drawing listed
in its catalogue.
+Pieter Bruegel der Aeltere.+ Siebenunddreissig Farbenlichtdrucke nach
seinen Hauptwerken in Wien und eine Einführung in seine Kunst. Von
+Max Dvořák+. Wien: Oesterreichischen Staatsdruckerei.
This wonderful production is just being completed; its magnificent
plates embody the utmost resources of modern color-printing. An edition
with the text translated into French is announced for the month of
July, and another with a translation into English is expected during
the year.
* * * * *
The foregoing annotations are based upon actual reading and examination
of the books and articles mentioned. I think it well to append a few
additional items which I have had no opportunity as yet to examine;
my study of the volumes already listed, however, leads me to believe
that they possess interest and importance. The words in italics at the
end of each entry indicate its source among the books in the previous
section.
* * * * *
+Pierre Brueghel Le Vieux.+ Par +Henri Hymans+. (Gazette des
Beaux-Arts: Paris: 1890 et 1891.) _Pfister: Bibliography._
+Les Brueghel.+ Par +Emile Michel+. Paris: 1892. _Van Bastelaer &
Hulin, p. 294._
+Pieter Brueghel der Aeltere und sein Kunstschaffen.+ Von +Alex
L. Romdahl+. (Jahrbuch der Kunsthistorischen Sammlungen des
Allerhöchsten Kaiserhauses, Bd. 25: Wien: 1905.) _Tolnai and Pfister:
Bibliographies._
+Pieter Bruegel im Kupferstichkabinett zu Berlin.+ Von +Ludwig
Burchard+. (Amtliche Berichte aus der Königliche Kunstsammlung in
Berlin, Bd. 34: Berlin: 1912–13.) _Tolnai: Bibliography._
+Die Niederländische Landschaftsmalerei von Patinir bis Bruegel.+ Von
+Ludwig von Baldass+. (Jahrbuch der Kunsthistorischen Sammlungen
des Allerhöchsten Kaiserhauses, Bd. 34: Wien: 1918.) _Tolnai:
Bibliography._
+Der Bauern-Bruegel und das Deutsche Sprichwort.+ Von +Wilhelm
Fraenger+. (München: 1923.) _Tolnai: Bibliography._