The Hare Hunters
Medium
Etching in black on ivory laid paper
Dimensions
Image: 21.5 × 29.2 cm (8 1/2 × 11 1/2 in.); Sheet: 24.6 × 31.8 cm (9 11/16 × 12 9/16 in.)
Classification
etching
Department
Prints and Drawings
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
25374
Rights
Public Domain
About this artwork
This etching might represent two related proverbs popularized by the philosopher/writer Erasmus in the mid-1500s: “He who chases two hares catches neither” and “A hare yourself, you hunt for prey.” In compositional terms, the proverb served Pieter Bruegel the Elder as more of a pretext for the sweeping landscape scene that occupies most of the printed field. Bruegel’s inf luence on the early development of the landscape genre cannot be overestimated. He created important landscape drawings, but...